Story perspectives

Synthetic “SpudCell” Grows, Divides, Outcompetes Original Strain

7/2/2026

Summary

Minnesota Scientists Build

University of Minnesota scientists built SpudCell, a synthetic cell that grows, feeds, replicates its genome and divides.
SpudCell uses liposome membranes and seven plasmids encoding a 90-kilobase-pair genome.
It divides via membrane-stress proteins and outcompeted the original strain after five generations.
Researchers note SpudCell lasts only a few generations, lacks a cytoskeleton, cannot sustain autonomous metabolism, and remains a preprint without peer review.

Summary

Endy launches

Biotic, co-founded by Kate Adamala and Drew Endy, will release SpudCell as an open-source platform free for academia, with commercial licensing fees.
Endy says the chassis is contained because it uses genetic kill-switches and supplied ribosomes.
Ethicist Laurie Zoloth warns the open-source model raises questions about control, benefit sharing and safeguards.
SpudCell follows a lineage from 1957 artificial cells to the 2016 JCVI-syn3.0 minimal bacterium, the first fully bottom-up construct.

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Minnesota Scientists Build

University of Minnesota scientists built SpudCell, a synthetic cell that grows, feeds, replicates its genome and divides.
SpudCell uses liposome membranes and seven plasmids encoding a 90-kilobase-pair genome.
It divides via membrane-stress proteins and outcompeted the original strain after five generations.
Researchers note SpudCell lasts only a few generations, lacks a cytoskeleton, cannot sustain autonomous metabolism, and remains a preprint without peer review.

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