K. R. CALLAWAY2026年7月2日SpudCell的研究人员称其表现与活细胞类似。 Orion Venero, Adamala LabWhat is SpudCell?什么是SpudCell？SpudCell is a synthetic cell made by scientists at the University of Minnesota. It was created in a lab from lifeless chemicals but can perform most of the same functions as living cells. It eats, grows and reproduces, passing along its genetic material to future generations.SpudCell是由明尼苏达大学的科学家创造的一种人工合成细胞。它是在实验室中用无生命的化学物质制成的，但可以执行活细胞的大部分功能。它能进食、生长和繁殖，并将其遗传物质传递给后代。Although it’s not the first synthetic cell ever created, SpudCell is the first to complete a full life cycle — from birth to division into next-generation cells — after having been created from the “bottom up” using laboratory chemicals. It’s a pared down version of a living cell structure, revealing the basic genetic and structural components necessary for the functions of life.尽管不是有史以来第一个合成细胞，但SpudCell是首个食用实验室化学物质“自下而上“构建而成，并完成从诞生到分裂成下一代细胞的完整生命周期的合成细胞。它是活细胞结构的一个精简版本，揭示了生命功能所必需的基本遗传和结构组成部分。So, is it alive?那么，它是活的吗？No. Or maybe! The researchers behind SpudCell do not claim to have created life, though they note that there is “no single agreed definition” of life and that their cell-like system acts similarly to living cells.不是。或者说也许是！SpudCell背后的研究人员并未声称创造了生命，尽管他们指出生命“没有单一公认的定义”，并且他们这种类细胞系统运作方式与活细胞相似。“SpudCell performs the behaviors often used to tell the living from the inert — it feeds, grows, replicates its genome, divides and undergoes selection — yet it is far simpler than any natural cell and was assembled, part by part, by hand,” the project researchers wrote in a statement.该项目的研究人员在一份声明中写道：“SpudCell表现出了通常用于区分生物与非生物的行为——它能进食、生长、复制其基因组、分裂并进行选择——然而它比任何天然细胞都要简单得多，并且是手工一步步组装而成的。”Unlike most natural cells, SpudCell is not self-sufficient. Because it can’t build its own ribosomes — the parts of the cell responsible for building new proteins — scientists have to feed it crucial proteins and enzymes, and each lineage lasts only five to 10 generations.与大多数天然细胞不同，SpudCell无法自给自足。由于无法构建自己的核糖体（细胞中负责构建新蛋白质的部分），科学家必须喂给它们关键的蛋白质和酶，而且每个谱系只能维持5到10代。SpudCell’s genome is also smaller than most living cells. It contains just 90,000 base pairs, compared with humans’ 3 billion, and this genetic information is split across seven DNA molecules, instead of being consolidated into one. This fragmentation means that important genetic material isn’t always passed in full to the next generation.SpudCell的基因组也比大多数活细胞要小。它仅包含9万个碱基对，而人类有30亿个，并且这些遗传信息被分散在七个DNA分子中，而不是整合为一个。这种碎片化意味着重要的遗传物质并不总能完整地传递给下一代。Why are scientists doing this?科学家为什么要这样做？Even though SpudCell is a new development, it builds on decades of work on what scientists call “minimal cells.” These are synthetic cells that contain only the most basic genetic and structural architecture needed to perform the functions of life.尽管SpudCell是一项新进展，但它是建立在科学家对所谓“最小细胞”的数十年研究基础之上的。这些是仅包含执行生命功能所需的最基本遗传和结构体系的人造细胞。Synthetic cells help researchers fully understand the essential functions of a living cell — what is and isn’t needed for life.人造细胞有助于研究人员充分了解活细胞的核心功能——即生命需要什么，不需要什么。Advances in understanding the connections and mechanisms of life could, in turn, aid medical research, space exploration and many other areas of study.深入了解生命的联系与机制反过来又可以助力医学研究、太空探索以及许多其他研究领域。Are there other synthetic, yet lifelike, cells?还有其他具有生命特征的人造细胞吗？For over a century, scientists have been trying to mimic the processes of life — from attempts to create inner parts of cells in the lab for medical research to attempts at creating full cells.一个多世纪以来，科学家一直试图模拟生命的过程——从在实验室中尝试制造细胞内部部件以进行医学研究，到尝试创造完整的细胞。The world’s first artificial “cell” was created in 1957 by Thomas Ming Swi Chang, a Canadian physicist and inventor. While this first attempt didn’t work like biological cells do, it paved the way for medical advances that relied on biological materials being transported within the body — such as in the treatment of organ failure and drug poisoning.世界上第一个人工“细胞”是由加拿大物理学家、发明家张明瑞(Thomas Ming Swi Chang)于1957年创造的。虽然这一初次尝试无法像生物细胞那样运作，但它为依赖在体内运输生物材料的医学进步铺平了道路——例如在治疗器官衰竭和药物中毒方面。Since then, the field of synthetic biology has flourished. In 2010, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute, which has facilities in California and Maryland, created “minimal cells” — made from stripped down natural cells — that had a synthetic genome and could divide on their own. Now, SpudCell demonstrates a new path forward in synthetic biology.自那时起，合成生物学领域便蓬勃发展。2010年，在加利福尼亚州和马里兰州设有机构的J·克雷格·文特尔研究所的研究人员创造了“最小细胞”——由精简的天然细胞制成——它们拥有合成基因组并且可以自行分裂。如今，SpudCell展示了合成生物学向前发展的一条新路径。“Kate Adamala’s team designed and built a nonliving synthetic cell that is much closer to being ‘alive’ than anything else produced by the bottom-up synthetic cell field,” said John Glass, who leads synthetic cell research at the J. Craig Venter Institute.J·克雷格·文特尔研究所人造细胞研究负责人约翰·格拉斯表示：“凯特·阿达马拉的团队设计并构建了一个无生命的人造细胞，它比自下而上的人造细胞领域生产的其他任何东西都更接近‘活’的状态。”What’s next for SpudCell?SpudCell的下一步计划是什么？It is a major advance, but researchers behind the SpudCell effort say there is still work to be done.这是一个重大的进展，但SpudCell项目背后的研究人员表示，仍有很多工作要做。Next, researchers hope to create genetic instructions for building ribosomes so that future versions of SpudCell will not have to borrow ribosomes from living cells — which limits SpudCell’s reproduction ability to just five to 10 generations.接下来，研究人员希望创造出构建核糖体的遗传指令，这样未来版本的SpudCell就不必从活细胞中借用核糖体——这会将SpudCell的繁殖能力限制在5到10代。The researchers also hope to bring its function closer to natural cells by improving its ability to pass full genetic information to future generations and by reducing its dependence on the enzyme-rich “food” provided by researchers.研究人员还希望通过提高其向后代传递完整遗传信息的能力，并减少其对研究人员提供的富含酶的“食物”的依赖，使其功能更接近天然细胞。Are there risks?存在风险吗？This new way of creating synthetic cells brings age-old concerns about the ethics and security of lifelike creations. Biosecurity experts suggest that SpudCell and similar artificial cell projects do not pose any immediate threats.这种创建人造细胞的新方法带来了关于具有生命特征的创造物的伦理和安全的古老担忧。生物安全专家表示，SpudCell及类似的人工细胞项目不会构成任何迫在眉睫的威胁。“The current SpudCell is an exciting proof-of-principle, but before it can be used for good or for bad, it will require significantly more work,” said Becky Mackelprang, director of security programs at the Engineering Biology Research Consortium.工程生物学研究联盟安全项目主任贝基·麦克尔普兰表示：“目前的SpudCell是一个令人振奋的概念验证，但要想付诸应用——无论是用在正途还是邪道，还需要做大量的工作。”K. R. Callaway是时报科学报道记者，也是2026-27时报培训项目的成员，这是一个针对生涯早期记者的项目。翻译：经雷点击查看本文英文版。