Towards the design of Synthetic Cells

走向合成细胞的设计

• 批准号: 1748208
• 负责人: Herbert Levine
• 金额: $ 9.71万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1748208&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Towards; design; Synthetic; Cells

The physicist Richard Feynman is often credited with the remark 'What I cannot create, I do not understand'. The recent history of cell biology is one in which cells have been studied at increasingly simpler and fundamental levels through 'reductionist' experimental approaches. The purpose of this workshop is to utilize that knowledge to address the Feynman dictum and begin the process of building synthetic cells to more fully understand the functions of their natural counterparts. This has the exciting possibility of not only advancing our understanding of biology and regenerative medicine, but also impacting significantly our food security and biomanufacturing industry.This project will bring together leading scientists from disparate fields of research including cellular and synthetic biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and bioengineering to plan the construction of synthetic cells. They will address many different questions including 'what is the minimum set of genes, proteins, organelles, small molecules necessary for a cell to function?' and 'what is the minimum set of activities that would define 'function'' among others? By the end of the meeting, the participants should have identified key barriers to success as well as opportunities where concentrated effort could significantly advance the field. They results of the workshop will be a video record of the proceedings, a written report highlighting obstacles and opportunities and the state of the field, and a plan for future collaboration to leverage the work started at the workshop.The workshop is jointly funded by the Cellular Dynamics and Function Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and the Physics of Living Systems Program in the Division of Physics.

物理学家理查德·费曼（Richard Feynman）经常说：“我不能创造的东西，我不理解。在细胞生物学的近代史中，通过“还原论”的实验方法，细胞已经在越来越简单和基础的水平上被研究。本次研讨会的目的是利用这些知识来解决费曼格言，并开始构建合成细胞的过程，以更充分地了解其天然对应物的功能。该项目将汇集来自细胞和合成生物学、化学、物理学、数学和生物工程等不同研究领域的顶尖科学家，共同规划合成细胞的构建。他们将解决许多不同的问题，包括“什么是最低限度的基因，蛋白质，细胞器，小分子所必需的细胞功能？””以及“定义“功能”的最低活动集是什么”等？到会议结束时，与会者应已确定成功的主要障碍以及集中努力可大大推进该领域的机会。研讨会的成果将是一个录像记录的程序，一份书面报告，突出的障碍和机会，该领域的状态，以及未来的合作计划，以利用在研讨会上开始的工作。研讨会是由细胞动力学和功能计划在分子和细胞生物科学司和物理学司的生命系统计划的物理学共同资助。