We Accidentally Built a Synthetic Cell Factory
20 days ago
- b.next started as academics addressing interoperability and supply chain gaps in synthetic cell research, leading to a manufacturing plant for Cytosol.
- An open PURE system was identified as essential for the community, but commercial formulations were restrictive and inaccessible.
- Initial challenges included inability to access the 36 plasmids, due to restrictive licensing, and discovering existing plasmid sets were incomplete or mutated.
- b.next redesigned and synthesized improved open-access PURE plasmids and protocols, achieving detectable output after nine months.
- Supply chain fragility worsened when Roche and Sigma stopped supplying tRNA, making a key reagent unavailable.
- By mid-2025, b.next developed open protocols for all PURE components—proteins, small molecules, tRNA, and ribosomes—and hosted workshops to disseminate the technology.
- They shifted to providing pre-manufactured Cytosol kits tied to Nucleus open specifications, since building PURE in individual labs is time-consuming and limits scalability.
- In late 2025 to early 2026, b.next operationalized a dedicated manufacturing plant in San Francisco, shipping over 100 Cytosol kits to ~20 labs worldwide.
- Cytosol kits follow open specifications and can be built from scratch via publicly available protocols; new modules for energy, control, and membrane translation are being validated.
- Future plans include digital/automation tools, AI-driven engineering, multi-institutional programs, and expanding Cytosol's capabilities collaboratively.
- b.next invites researchers to collaborate, propose modules, and build synthetic cells together using Cytosol and Nucleus.