Towards Artificial Cells: Novel Advances in Bottom-Up Cell Design and Construction

27 November 2013, London, United Kingdom

Introduction

This meeting will focus on the emerging area of artificial cells and the construction of biologically-inspired modules using bottom up approaches. Synthetic Biology is an emerging area of science offering exciting possibilities in exploring the interfaces of Chemistry, Biology and Engineering systems; current approaches in this field focus on re-designing existing systems or combining existing modules. However the construction of such modules from scratch offers an exciting alternative where a fundamental understanding of the engineering principles that underlie cellular function can be manipulated to design bespoke biological systems. This meeting will review the current state of the art in areas ranging from artificial proteins and membranes to synthetic cells, and will define the problems and prospects for this next-generation technology.