UCSD Researchers Create Artificial Cell Membrane

cylonlover writes with an excerpt from a Gizmag article: "The cell membrane is one of the most important components of a cell because it separates the interior from the environment and controls the movement of substances in and out of the cell. In a move that brings mankind another step closer to being able to create artificial life forms from scratch, chemists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Harvard University have created artificial self-assembling cell membranes using a novel chemical reaction. The chemists hope their creation will help shed light on the origins of life." The full paper is available in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (behind a paywall).

UCSD Bioeng

[ShakaUVM]

Neat. I used to work for the UCSD Bioengineering department. Many, many smart people worked there. Much more so than the San Diego Supercomputer Center during the tech boom (half the people they hired during that time period were people who'd read a "Learn Programming in 30 Days" book, or whatever, because anyone with any skills were going into industry).

It's always nice to see their work getting press.

Re:LFS

[Samantha Wright]

We're still some ways off! So far we've got the ability to throw a new membrane and a chromosome at a pre-existing cell; there's still a ton of stuff that goes on in between. We still don't know exactly how a lot of it works; there are lots of little protein structures in bacterial cytoplasm that will take a lot of diligent study to figure out. Some day, though. Some day.

(Also, is it just me, or is S nowhere near Y on any keyboard layout ever?)