Overview
- The research team published a public preprint on July 1, 2026 reporting a synthetic cell called SpudCell that takes up supplies, grows, replicates a roughly 90,000–base‑pair genome and divides for about five lab-fed generations.
- SpudCell is assembled from a known list of nonliving biomolecules sealed in liposome membranes and uses supplied E. coli ribosomes rather than making its own proteins.
- Division is driven by proteins crowding the membrane rather than a cytoskeleton, and each generation takes roughly 12 hours under continuous feeding and controlled temperature.
- The prototype is fragile and non–self-sustaining, the work has not completed peer review, and the team formed a public-benefit group called Biotic to share methods and manage licensing and governance.
- Researchers say the platform can aid origins-of-life study and engineered applications if future work adds ribosome production, controlled mutation for evolution, greater efficiency and formal biosafety oversight.