SIR Biology Investigation Abstract
BUILDING ARTIFICIAL CELLS FROM THE GROUND UP
Presenter:
Albert Ho, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Advisor:
Dr. Fouzi Mouffouk, Rush Hospital Research Facility
Abstract:
The greatest scientists in the world have pondered and tried to explain the origin of life, yet the picture they painted for us is still blurry. By analyzing an artificial cell, a biological system in symbiosis assembled from non-living matter, we hope to decode the mysteries of our origin and better understand our own biological processes. We envision the first artificial cells to be close replicas of the most primitive life forms and by analyzing what we have built we can better understand how life began. With recent advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology it is becoming increasingly possible to imitate life in the form of a very simple proto-organism. We hope that artificial cells will lead to the development of “living technology” in which cells will be able to adapt, evolve, and self repair. Living technology may also be able to function as intracellular nano-sensors or drug delivery vehicles that can deliver precise dosage at a certain time at an exact location within the human body.
Our goal is to assemble a thermodynamically favorable self-replicating cell that employs proto-genes and a proto-metabolism. When supplied with food (surfactants) the metabolic processes will assemble the essential building blocks under the condition that only specific gene sequences will enhance the metabolic kinetics sufficiently for the whole system to survive. The metabolic system and the self-replication process will be detailed, focusing on the self-assembly process.