Genetics, Cell Biology and Development
College of Biological Sciences and Medical School
Twin Cities
Award Year
2021
University Award
McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
Engineering Synthetic Life
Kate Adamala works on building synthetic cells. Such organisms, engineered from non-living components, give us the ability to control every element of a cell and to study behaviors and properties of life with unprecedented precision. Synthetic cells are used for both basic research and practical applications, to study the origins and evolution of life, to make drugs and novel biomaterials, to understand properties of normal cells and to study mechanisms of disease.