Minnesota team builds synthetic cell from lifeless parts that eats, grows and divides for five generations

What SpudCell is

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, led by Kate Adamala and Aaron Engelhart, announced on 2 July 2026 that they had constructed a synthetic cell-like structure called SpudCell. Built entirely from lifeless chemical components, it can take in nutrients, grow, copy its genetic material and divide into daughter cells. The work was described in a manuscript posted on the preprint platform Biotic after being rejected by the journal Cell. No peer review has yet been completed.

We replicated in chemistry what was previously possible only in biology: the complete set of behaviors of a cell. This shows that the most fundamental functions of life, like growth and replication, do not require a mysterious magic spark.

How it works

SpudCell is built around a liposome, a fatty membrane that encloses about 150 to 200 molecules and a tiny genome of roughly 90,000 DNA base pairs (90 kbp) spread across seven separate plasmids. That genome is far smaller than the 113 kbp that biologists had until now considered the minimum for a living cell, and more than 33,000 times smaller than the human genome. The cell uses a protein-expression system derived from the bacteriophage Phi29 to transcribe its DNA and produce proteins. It obtains energy by fusing with nutrient-carrying vesicles in its surroundings. Division happens without a cytoskeleton; instead, specialised proteins accumulate on the membrane until it ruptures into two daughter cells.

Five generations and a hint of evolution

The team reported that SpudCell can sustain itself for about five generations, with each cycle taking around 12 hours at 30 °C. A genetic modification produced a faster-growing variant. After five generations that variant had outcompeted the original in both nutrient-rich and scarce conditions, demonstrating that selection and competition can operate in a fully synthetic chemical system.

It’s an incredibly weak organism that right now basically does nothing more than eat and, once in a while, produce a daughter cell.

Not life, but a proof of concept

Adamala and her colleagues stress they have not created artificial life. The system cannot build its own ribosomes and must be fed enzymes and proteins by researchers. Experts outside the team agree the gap between lifelike and alive remains wide.

The work is technically solid and an important technological advance, but it is in no way the creation of life in the lab — a clearly exaggerated claim.

Keep in mind that ‘alive’ is not a precisely defined condition. As Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography: ‘I know it when I see it.’ Being alive is sort of like that.

A new toolkit for synthetic biology

Even with its limitations, scientists see SpudCell as a step toward programmable cells that could one day produce medicines, materials or clean energy. Yuval Elani of Imperial College London called it an important milestone on the road to answering whether life can be built from scratch. Adamala noted that because every ingredient is known and controlled, the design can be iterated, which is not possible with natural cells.