Scientists Create Synthetic Cell That Can Feed, Grow, and Replicate– slaynews.com

Scientists say they have created a fully synthetic cell that can feed, grow, replicate its genome, and divide, marking a major step toward building life-like systems from non-living chemical components.

The team from the University of Minnesota says its synthetic cell, called “SpudCell,” is the “first synthetic cell with a complete cell cycle.”

Researchers say it can “grow, replicate its genome, divide, and undergo selection and competition across multiple generations.”

The breakthrough could open the door to a new era of biotechnology in which synthetic organisms are built from scratch and programmed to carry out specific tasks.