Jump-starting life? Fundamental aspects of synthetic biology.
What is life and how could it originate? This question lies at the core of understanding the cell as the smallest living unit. Although we are witnessing a golden era of the life sciences, we are ironically still far from giving a convincing answer to this question. In this short article, I argue why synthetic biology in conjunction with the quantitative sciences may provide us with new concepts and tools to address it.
Department of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, 82152 Martinsried, Germany Schwille@biochem.mpg.de.
Petra
P
Schwille
D057005:Bioengineering / Q000379:methods; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003585:Cell Biology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D000069497:Origin of Life; D058615:Synthetic Biology; D049490:Systems Biology