All Protocell articles
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ResearchSimple lipid networks combine self-assembly, replication, competition and inhibition
Artificial cells have previously lacked the complexity that is distinct to natural life but scientists are edging closer
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ResearchChemical stimulus used to trigger synthetic cell division
Mother vesicle that divides into two smaller daughter vesicles could be a plausible model of primitive cells
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ResearchBubbly protocells bob up and down
Enzymes inflate or consume oxygen bubbles making clay capsules float and sink reversibly
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ResearchPlant machinery functions inside synthetic protocell
Self-assembling microdroplets filled with chloroplasts show photosynthetic potential
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ResearchRobot with AI brain learns to evolve synthetic protocells
Evolution of oil-in-water system guided by machine learning offers insight into origins of life
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ResearchSynthetic cells pass bacterial Turing test
Chemical communication offers a way to determine how lifelike an artificial cell is
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ResearchRiddle of life’s origin may be answered by dividing protocells
Model suggests simple chemical systems could grow and reproduce and could have got life off to a flying start
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ResearchPrimitive synthetic cells get a taste for each other
Predatory protocells offer insight into how such behaviours may have arisen at the dawn of life
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ResearchLifting molecular brake may have kept primeval cells running
Removing RNA restriction can steady biochemical function, with relevance for life’s emergence
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ResearchPeptide glue may have held first protocell components together
Association between RNA and primitive membranes 4 billion years ago thought to have kick-started life could have been mediated by peptides