Nature is beautiful, powerful and essential. But nature is not always gentle. The same biological world that gives rise to forests, coral reefs and human life also produces infections, cancer, genetic disease, crop blights and toxins. Natural processes can heal, sustain and inspire, but they can also destroy.That dichotomy is part of what drives the field of synthetic biology: where scientists apply engineering principles to learn from and carefully adapt nature’s biological systems to address human problems. By understanding biological systems, scientists can carefully redirect them when natural processes cause harm.This principle has shaped my work as a biomedical engineer for over two decades. My lab studies how to program cells in order to better understand their behavior and ultimately use them as medicine. The goal is not to discard or replace nature, but to learn from biological principles and use that knowledge to responsibly help society.AdvertisementAdvertisementResearchers announced on July 2, 2026, that they had created the first synthetic cell built from purified, nonliving components.The lab’s cell-like system, dubbed SpudCell, raises key questions: What does it take to build a cell from scratch? If scientists assemble something that feeds, grows, copies genetic material and divides, have they created life?How to create cells from scratchNatural cells are astonishingly complicated. Researchers want to use synthetic cells to learn more about how life works, and they are doing this by rebuilding some of life’s basic features in a simpler, more understandable form.Earlier designs of minimal cells, used to test which components are necessary for lifelike behavior, began with existing living cells and reduced the size of their genomes. A minimal cell is useful because it is simple, but that simplicity comes at a cost. It may reveal which parts are needed for lifelike behavior, but it usually lacks the autonomy, resilience, metabolism and evolutionary capacity of natural cells.AdvertisementAdvertisementInstead, synthetic cells are built through a bottom-up engineering approach. Scientists start with a simplified compartment – a kind of biological “box” – …
