Most of Build-A-Cell activities are coordinated by working groups.
If you would like to join a working group or talk to group leaders, let us know through this form.
You can join any active working group. Some groups are actively soliciting new members, but you can get in touch with any group to see if they need a hand.
Current active working groups
repository group page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hQgzRs0Gq6cpZ5kNpJ4midLNSrJkrFA2MifPAPuGFVk/edit?usp=sharing
LifeOS
Building an operating system for life.
A roadmap for the next decade” - a review of the past decades (where we’ve been as a field) and where we’re envisioning going. This will include explicit statement of goals (grand challenges), roadblocks in research, and a critical review of synthetic cell literature.
google doc link LifeOS folder
This group is looking for new members! get in touch with Felix (see google doc for contact info)
In silico cell group
Modeling frameworks that enable synthetic cells with predictable behavior. We are working on 1) models of cellular subsystems, 2) benchmark datasets and "Turing tests" to measure the viability of models across physical scales (e.g., atomic to whole-cell), 3) visualization methods, and 4) games and competitions to enable decentralized modeling.
google doc link in silico group
This group is looking for new members! get in touch with Akshay (see google doc for contact info)
Interlab Group
A list of potential components/subsystems that have already been demonstrated in isolation by differently and could be potentially integrated together in a "synthetic cell” to demonstrate some interesting function. Output is diagram showing the components and some made-up graphs showing what we think we could demonstrate.
google doc link interlab group
PURE that makes PURE
Better translation group
Self-replicating translation systems, making and upgrading cell-free protein expression extracts
Expected outcome: white paper review? list of problems that need to be solved to obtain self-replicating PURE
google doc link pure group
Essential genes group
Essential genes of known and unknown function - minimal gene list for cell
google doc link essential genes group
Communications group
Creating a set of (freely shareable) slides that can be used by anyone to introduce, explain, and advocate for building cells
google doc link communications group
This group is looking for new members!
Ethics and biosafety group
Ethics of building life, safety of gain of function research, discussing variables necessary to balance safety with fast research progress.
This group is looking for new members! get in touch with Kate.
Questions group
Basic questions and science accumulation
google doc link theory group
Synthetic cell gene repositories
Addgene and Free Gene Project repositories for synthetic cell and cell-free genes.
Please comment on what we need to add, email Kate for more info.
Previous groups
Containers
Result: shared liposome protocol on github.