Designing a living mammalian cell

Living cells continue to attract the attention of researchers for understanding their origin, design and function. Recent advances in molecular science, biochemical devices and computational tools have generated renewed interest in unravelling the secret of formation of living cells. It is unclear how primitive life forms originated from non-living molecules. Multi-directional approaches have yielded deeper insight into this question. From a top-down approach, a wealth of invaluable information has been obtained concerning molecular design and genome coding in many types of cells. On the other hand, assemblies of complex structures with living attributes starting from simple inanimate molecules have also been attempted. Synthetic biologists have achieved significant milestones in designing and creating a living bacterial cell by transplanting a chemically synthesized genome, but overcoming the limitations of bacterial design and constructing a minimal mammalian cell with multiple sub-cellular organelles remains a future dream. In this paper, we give a brief account of progress made and major challenges faced in designing a functional mammalian cell in the laboratory. Integration of knowledge from ge-nome science, molecular engineering and computational technologies, in particular, shows promise. Success in designing an artificial mammalian cell would open a plethora of new opportunities for biomo-lecular engineering, shed light on evolution , and assist with the diagnosis and therapy of disease.