NSAS Idea Suggestion #11 - Synthetic Cells

In this series I propose daily ideas for new members who are interested in becoming #steemstem authors.

NSAS: New STEM Authors Support

I will post an idea a dayish (it is the goal to post daily, but again real life>steemit for now). With this idea I will include a short description about aspects you may be interested in. If you read this idea proposal, and you like it, and you want to write about it:

Go to the comments and write: "I, username, claim this idea"

Obviously "username" is where you write your own username. This is so that I know who is interested in @steemstem and science in general and I am always looking for a good read. This is honor system stuff, so please respect someone claiming an idea. Again, this is just the first step towards writing a good science post. There is more to it. Do your research, use scientific sources and try to use some proper language and attractive design.
This series will have their own hashtag #nsas, so that you can go back and sort through some of the ideas I have shared and what people made out of it. If you decide to use the idea I propose, please also include #nsas on your posts so that I can have a look at it and maybe get you connected in the steemstem group.
Please also visit @steemstem on steemit as well as on Discord. Follow the guidelines and appreciate the community. That means engage, upvote and comment until your fingers bleed.

Yep, another idea related to synthetic biology. This time, it is based on the other main stream direction of synthetic biology - the creation of synthetic cells.
I had my first encounter with synthetic cells when I had the brilliant idea of overexpressing the enzyme that helps some bacteria and algae to bind atmospheric nitrogen. Overexpressing this enzyme and putting it into synthetic cells could help us to move away from the Haver-Bosch Cylce I thought. Obviously this is not as easy as it sounds - freaking enzymes are the bigges wuzzies.
Anyways, there are some serious attempts at creating synthetic cells. I stumbled upon this article from Nature Communications. What they achieved is the replication of DNA by proteins encoded in this DNA. That kind of is the central dogma of biology. However, they managed to do this with a viral protein-primed replication mechanism to do this, something that has failed thus far. I think this topic would be a very interesting one. You could explore some general synthetic biology and then dive into the creation of synthetic cells. Questions you could try to anser are "Why do we want to make synthetic cells?" or "How far are we?"
To get you started, I looked for some open access sources.

• Semi-synthetic minimal cells: origin and recent developments
• Self-replication of DNA by its encoded proteins in liposome-based synthetic cells
• Artificial cells: from basic science to applications
• ‘Minimal’ cell raises stakes in race to harness synthetic life
• Landmark as lab creates synthetic cell with minimum genes needed for life - Newspaper article

Previous Idea Suggestions:

• Suggestion #1: Onions and their Health Benefits
• Suggestion #2: Tea - The Silent Killer
• Suggestion #3: Essential Oils
• Suggestion #4: Biotechnology And Beer-Brewing
• Suggestion #5: Antioxidant Hype - Claimed by @deholt, build on by @csusbgeochem1
• Suggestion #6: Your Diet Changes Your Gut Microbiome Faster Than You Think
• Suggestion #7: Target Delivery Of Cancer Therapeutics
• Suggestion #8: Science Behind The Conspiracy Theory Phenomenon
• Suggestion #9: Influence Of Drug Overuse On The Human Microbiome
• Suggestion #10: Does The Brain Talk To The Immune System?

Helpful Links

• How To Find Scientific Sources For Free - Post
• SteemSTEM Guidelines - Link

As always,
Cheers @lesshorrible!