Life from scratch – Gabriele Gramelsberger

Abstract:

For more than a decade, scientists have been exploring the transition from non-living to living entities in order to create life from scratch, i.e., to move chemically from protoplasm to protocells and finally to artificial organisms. Today, synthetic biology aims to genetically engineer life from scratch, such as the synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn3.0—an artificial single-celled organism with a minimal genome consisting of 473 genes. With the use of computer-aided design (CAD) for genome editing, rapid design of new organisms is now a “one-stop-shop” business. This talk will provide a brief introduction to the history of the re-genesis of life, followed by an overview of the current practice of synthetic biology of programming life. It will conclude with some reflections on the proliferating “domain of synthetica.”

Gabriele Gramelsberger holds the Chair for Theory of Science and Technology at RWTH Aachen University and is one of the two directors of c:o/re. In 2018 she founded the Computational Social Systems Lab, supported by the NRW Digital Fellowship 2017. Her aim is to develop a conceptual framework for Philosophy of Computational Sciences as well as an open science infrastructure for Computational Science Studies. She is a member of the RWTH Human Technology Center and serves as Vice Dean for Research of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the RWTH Aachen University.

This event is part of our winter semester 2023/24 lecture series Lifelikeness.

To take part either online or in presence, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.