Abstract

Advances in directed evolution and membrane biophysics make the synthesis of simple living cells, if not yet foreseeable reality, an imaginable goal. Overcoming the many scientific challenges along the way will deepen our understanding of the essence of cellular life and its origin on Earth.

1. Jack W. Szostak is at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. David P. Bartel is at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. P. Luigi Luisi is at ETH-Zentrum, Institut für Polymere, Universitätstrasse 6, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland.