If something eats, grows, and replicates, can it be considered life? This is That’s an issue that researchers from the University of Minnesota have been pondering lately. Scientists have recently constructed a cell-like system called “SpudCells,” named after its playful potato shaped appearance as well as a homage to Sputnik 1 – Earth’s first artificial satellite. Yet, h How did they manage to pull this off? More importantly, how does this change the definition of “life”?

SpudCells perform all the functions of life, such as eating, growing, reproducing, and competing for resources. Yet, these so-called cells are made up of lifeless chemical components: lipid membrane, enzymes, and genomes etc. Yet Unlike other attempts at life using with synthetic biology, the structure of the Spudcell is completely different as its structure was built from the bottom up. So how did they build it? Dr. Kate Adamala and her team used 36 purified enzymes, a 90,000 base-pair genome made of nine separate DNA plasmids, and a lipid membrane. It feeds on protein nanoveiscles and liposomes to stay alive. But here’s the thing: SpudCells cannot survive outside a lab. It heavily relies on support structures provided by scientists, meaning that it is not self-efficient.

According to scientists, “For now, most synthetic biologists agree that no artificial cell has yet passed that threshold between lifelike and alive… The newly created SpudCell still has several key limitations that separate it from living cells.” Therefore, the SpudCell cannot be considered alive.

Still, the SpudCell is a significant achievement matters a lot, alive or not. It represents a major scientific breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology. It could help make new medicines, accelerrate research on diseases, and maybe perhaps even help fight climate change.