Synthetic biology

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.

Yizhi “Patrick” Cai is coordinating a global effort to write a complete synthetic yeast genome. If he succeeds, the resulting cell will be the artificial life most closely related to humans to date.

In a year packed with fascinating discoveries, biologists pushed the limits of synthetic life, probed how organisms keep time, and refined theories about consciousness and emotional health.

Modern scientists aren’t content with predicting how life evolves. They want to shape it.

By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.

By genetically instructing cells to perform tasks that they wouldn’t in nature, synthetic biologists can learn deep secrets about how life works. Steven Strogatz discusses the potential of this young field with researcher Michael Elowitz.

Using inserted genetic circuitry, synthetic biologists controlled the growth of plant roots for the first time.

Synthetic biology experiments suggest a “MultiFate” model for how genetically identical cells become the many different types found in complex organisms like us.

Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge.