BaSyC PI Bert Poolman and Associate PI Evan Spruijt participate in doctoral network MSCA ComeInCell

Their research groups have been awarded three PhD positions via the Marie Curie doctoral network ComeInCell. This ambitious project what stands for ‘Condensates at Membrane Scaffolds – Integrated Systems as Synthetic Cell Compartments’ is an European Doctoral Network at the forefront of synthetic cell research.

BaSyC PI’s receive 40 million euro for their 10-year research programme EVOLF

Good news for synthetic cell research: BaSyC PI’s Cees Dekker (main applicant) and co-applicants Gijsje Koenderink, Siewert-Jan Marrink, Marileen Dogterom and Wilhelm Huck (together with Kristina Ganzinger and Jeroen van den Hoven) receive a NWO Summit grant of 40 million euro for their 10-year research programme EVOLF.

Looking back on BaSyC PhD research

Charlotte Koster, Ludo Schoenmakers and Melanie König all graduated from university in the past months and became a doctor. They now look back on
their doctoral research and on being a part of the BaSyC Consortium and take
us along in this article.

Podcasts from Gijsje Koenderink, Bert Poolman and Cees Dekker

BaSyC PI’s Gijsje, Bert and Cees all three contributed to a podcast!
Gijsje recorded her podcast for BNR series ‘Wetenschap Vandaag’, Bert recorded his podcast for DWIN and Cees recorded his podcast for the podcast series ‘Een wereld vol geheimen’ of the TU Delft and ‘Universiteit van Nederland’ in the context of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek year.

The Synthetic Cell: a new frontier in science and technology

Can we build a living cell from lifeless components? ...and in doing so, understand how life works?

With this initiative we aim to address one of the grand scientific challenges of this century: building a synthetic cell from its molecular building blocks.

(Image: Graham Johnson)

Building a synthetic cell is one of the grand scientific and intellectual challenges of the 21st century. While we have extensive knowledge about the molecular building blocks that form the basis of modern life, we currently do not understand how these building blocks collectively operate to define life. With BaSyC we propose to build a synthetic cell from the bottom-up, which arguably is the most fundamental approach towards elucidating the cell’s intricate working and basic life-defining principles. Truly understanding cellular life will bring huge intellectual, scientific, and technological rewards. At the same time, it will raise fascinating philosophical and ethical questions about how society may cope with new opportunities that result from these new fundamental insights.

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BaSyC Spring meeting 2024