2020 SynCell Meeting

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In 2018, as part of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas, a workshop (also known as an Ideas lab) on ‘Building a Synthetic Cell’ was held to identify projects at the frontiers of science and engineering that would use synthetic approaches to build cells from first principals. Seven such projects were identified and funded and the meeting funded through this proposal will serve to bring the successful groups together to discuss their progress in the year since funding began. Pursuing the goal of building living cells from inanimate chemistry provides significant opportunities to advance US bio-manufacturing in biotechnology, biomedicine and materials research as well as providing a unique educational and training opportunity for students and post-docs involved in the projects.The meeting will provide a forum for US scientists and bio-engineers to outline their most recent work on creating cells comprised of molecules with opposite chirality, building artificial neurons and constructing cells without lipids among other cutting edge synthetic biology projects. The meeting will allow time for the exchange of research ideas between scientific groups and networking opportunities for both junior and senior scientists.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.