Katarzyna (Kate) P Adamala is an American synthetic biologist and a professor of genetics at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Research

Adamala's work includes contributions to the field of

astrobiology Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the univ ...

, synthetic cell engineering and biocomputing. Her research on prebiotic RNA replication provided an experimental scenario for the

RNA world The RNA world is a hypothetical stage in the evolutionary history of life on Earth in which self-replicating RNA molecules proliferated before the evolution of DNA and proteins. The term also refers to the hypothesis that posits the existence ...

hypothesis of the

origin of life Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from abiotic component, non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to organism, living entities on ...

. She has worked on constructing

liposome A liposome is a small artificial vesicle, spherical in shape, having at least one lipid bilayer. Due to their hydrophobicity and/or hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, particle size and many other properties, liposomes can be used as drug deliver ...

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 central role of citric acid in primordial metabolism. In 2017 Adamala gave a TEDx talk entitled ''Life but not Alive'' about how and why humans can create synthetic cells.

Research on Mirror Life and Bioethics

In December 2024, Adamala co-authored a perspective article in ''Science'' calling for a moratorium on the creation of fully synthetic mirror-image microorganisms. "Mirror life" refers to organisms constructed entirely from mirror-image versions of natural biomolecules, such as L-sugars and D-amino acids, which are opposite in

chirality Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable fro ...

to those found in terrestrial life. Adamala and co-authors cited concerns that such organisms could pose biosafety risks, including the possibility that they might evade immune detection or be resistant to existing antibiotics. The statement was co-signed by 37 scientists, including

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winners

Greg Winter Sir Gregory Paul Winter (born 14 April 1951) is a Nobel Prize-winning British molecular biologist best known for his work on the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies. His research career has been based almost entirely at the MRC Laborator ...

and Jack W. Szostak. They argued that the field, while promising, requires a comprehensive risk assessment before advancing further. Other researchers expressed skepticism, arguing that current technical limitations make the creation of such organisms unlikely in the near future. Chemist and Nobel laureate

Benjamin List Benjamin List (; born 11 January 1968) is a German chemist who is one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. He co-developed organocatalysis, a method of acc ...

was among those who questioned the urgency of the concerns, stating that while bioethical caution is important, the field remains at a very early stage.

Selected Publications

* ''Engineering genetic circuit interactions within and between synthetic minimal cells (2016)'' * ''Programmable RNA-binding protein composed of repeats of a single modular unit'' (2016) * ''Collaboration between primitive cell membranes and soluble catalysts'' (2016) * ''A simple physical mechanism enables homeostasis in primitive cells'' (2016) * ''Generation of Functional RNAs from Inactive Oligonucleotide Complexes by Non-enzymatic Primer Extension'' (2013) * ''Non-enzymatic template-directed RNA synthesis inside model protocells'' (2013)

References

External links

Lab webpage

Kate Adamala: Life but Not Alive
TEDx talk
Mindscape Podcast
Kate Adamala on Creating Synthetic Life
Kate Adamala: Breakthrough Discuss 2019
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Synthetic biologists American bioengineers American astrobiologists University of Warsaw alumni Harvard University alumni University of Minnesota faculty {{US-biologist-stub