NWO Summit Grant for the evolution of living cells from lifeless molecules

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25 June 2024

A large consortium involving Gijs Wuite as a Task leader, Professor in Physics of Living Systems from the department of Physics and Astronomy at the Vrije Universiteit has been awarded a NWO Summit Grant to work on the EVOLF programme.

This program aims to bridge the knowledge gap between non-living and living matter by proposing to assemble a living synthetic cell from lifeless molecules. The ten-year funding from the Summit Grant will enable research groups to start the programme and play a prominent international role, thereby strengthening the long-term position of Dutch science. "The awarding of this Summit grant is very exciting. Understanding what is the essence of that separates living from non-living systems is a major scientific question. Using the insights and tools from physics I hope to play a small role in unraveling this", Wuite says.

Living systems

All known lifeforms consist of cells, and all cells are made up of molecules. Notably, while these molecules are not alive, a single cell is. How does a living cell emerge from a collection of inert molecules? Can we build a living cell from molecules in the lab? How many components would this require, and how should they be organized to transition from non-life to life? Theoretical considerations suggest a minimum of about 250 protein-coding genes are needed to build a cell, implying a vast number of combinatorial possibilities. Current studies have only explored systems with a few tens of components, indicating that a radically different approach beyond rational design is necessary to bridge this gap.

EVOLF

The EVOLF program tackles the unresolved question of bridging the gap between non-living and living matter by combining synthetic biology, biochemistry, biophysics and philosophy. Building on a solid scientific foundation, where the consortium has designed synthetic cellular modules for a minimal genome, metabolism, and cell division, EVOLF aims to advance this approach using nature-inspired evolution and artificial intelligence (AI) to create a truly autonomous synthetic cell. "In this consortium to build a synthetic cell we need to combine many different scientific fields to not only built but also understand which modules with which specific function we need in order to succeed", answers Wuite. "The mechanistic understanding obtained by biophysics will be essential to do so."

NWO Summit Grant

The Summit grant, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), supports top-tier research consortia that have demonstrated excellence through existing partnerships and are poised to achieve world-class status. These projects have already made significant scientific breakthroughs and will now have the opportunity to advance further, contributing valuable new knowledge to society. The grant also facilitates the training of a new generation of researchers, ensuring the sustainability and continuation of high-quality research.

Bio

Prof.dr.ir. Gijs Wuite obtained his PhD in biophysics in 2000. Since 2001 he leads his own group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and in 2009 was appointed full professor. In his research he has successfully applied quantitative physical tools to investigate fundamental problems in biology, and to search for the unification of apparently unrelated biological phenomena. Moreover, he has been at the forefront of recent new and fast developments of biophysical techniques that have enabled visualization, manipulation and control of complex biological reactions. In 2014 he co-founded LUMICKS, a fast growing company specialized in dynamic single molecule instruments and in 2018 he won the Dutch Physics Valorisation prize & in 2019 the Amsterdam Impact Award, for successfully launching this company.