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#552 Kate Adamala: Synthetic Cells, Cell Evolution, the Origin of Life, and Astrobiology

RECORDED ON AUGUST 11th 2021.
Dr. Katarzyna (Kate) P. Adamala is a synthetic biologist and a professor of genetics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Adamala’s work includes contributions to the field of astrobiology, synthetic cell engineering, and biocomputing. Her research on prebiotic RNA replication provided an experimental scenario for the RNA world hypothesis of the origin of life. She has worked on constructing liposome bioreactor synthetic cells. She is a founder and steering group member of the Build-a-Cell Initiative, an international collaboration for creation of synthetic live cells. She is a co-founder of synthetic cell company Synlife. Adamala and Szostak demonstrated non enzymatic RNA replication in primitive protocells is only possibly in presence of weak cation chelator like citric acid, providing further evidence for the central role of citric acid in primordial metabolism.

In this episode, we talk about synthetic biology. We discuss what is a synthetic cell, and how we can use it to study cell evolution and cell functions. We talk about the origin of life of Earth, and some of the theories out there. We also talk about cells before the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), and how to study cell evolution in the lab. Finally, we talk about the Build-a-Cell Initiative, and some of the main applications of synthetic cells, like basic research, biomanufacturing, medicine, space exploration, and astrobiology.

Time Links:
Intro
What is a synthetic cell?
Studying cell evolution and function in the lab
The origin of life
The first cells
Can we study the evolution of multicellularity with synthetic cells?
The Build-a-Cell Initiative
Applications of synthetic cells
Astrobiology
Follow Dr. Adamala’s work!

Follow Dr. Adamala’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3wUDugF
Prototypingbiology Adamala Lab: https://bit.ly/37t7F37
Build-a-Cell Initiative: https://bit.ly/2VKl2JX
Works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/3AfVPFS
Twitter handle: @KateAdamala

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