Creating Synthetic Life

On July 1st, 2026, the New York Times science story of the day was titled “This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. And it’s Manmade.” The story described a new effort to create a living cell from nonliving materials. Dr. Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist, and a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota developed a synthetic cell with some of the capabilities of living cells. She calls it a SpudCell because, under the microscope, it looks like a potato, though much smaller, of course. Is this the breakthrough to creating synthetic life?

This project involved selecting about 100 protein types and simple molecules required by living cells and combining them into a molecular soup under laboratory conditions. The researchers also added genes borrowed from a virus and from E. coli bacteria. They selected 36 genes to perform basic functions, including copying DNA. After mixing these ingredients in the soup, they added building blocks to form membranes, since cells need them to hold their contents together. The bubbles that simulated membranes sometimes enclosed the right mix of genes, proteins, and other molecules needed to initiate some of the chemical reactions that occur in cells.

Then the researchers added “food.” As the cells were fed, they began to grow. Finally, the scientists added a special protein that caused the cells’ surface to bend, splitting them into two and producing a pair of molecules that kept growing. To simulate evolution, the researchers created mutated cells and mixed them with the original SpudCells. The mutated cells competed for food until the mutants eventually outnumbered the originals, thereby driving evolution.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the SpudCells is that they cannot make ribosomes, which are necessary to produce new proteins. The researchers had to add ribosomes, but in five to 10 generations, the ribosomes became defective and the cells “died.”

The result of this procedure for creating synthetic life is a very simple, cell-like structure capable of some of the functions of living cells. However, this “cell” came into being only because of the hard work of several researchers who supplied the necessary materials, none of which they had created. It seems to show that, with enough pre-created materials and precise scientific procedures, a simple cell-like structure can be created by intelligent agents. It does not show that life can create itself. The Bible told us long ago that an intelligent Agent has created time, space, and matter/energy and assembled some of the matter into living beings.

Despite what The New York Times or any other media outlet might indicate, this project does not make faith in God obsolete or disprove His existence. It demonstrates that the creation of life is not an accident. Dr. Adamala and Dr. Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University, have created a nonprofit organization called Biotic. The purpose is to share this process for creating synthetic life with other scientists to further improve it. Biotic will likely be in the news for years as it tries to perfect a living cell. Their first meeting of scientists is scheduled for Philadelphia in September 2026. Hundreds of leading scientists are expected to join, and Dr. Edy estimates they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade to create synthetic life.

— Roland Earnst © 2026

References: nytimes.com, biotic.org, and biorxiv.org