Challenges of alignment in synthetic cell research
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 8, 2025

10:56
Author Spotlight: Tackling Challenges in Synthetic Cell Engineering
Published on: April 12, 2024
1.2K
M G J L Habets1, H A E Zwart2, M H Smolka3
1Rathenau Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands; Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands.
Trends in Biotechnology
|June 21, 2025
Abstract:
Big Science projects are often troubled by misalignments. We analyze how synthetic cell researchers handle misalignments by performing alignment work. We find that alignment work renders Big Science feasible, but involves trade-offs, for example between short-term successes and long-term goals. We thus recommend attending to the politics of alignment work.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Synthetic Biology
4.9K
Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary science that involves using principles from disciplines such as engineering, molecular biology, cell biology, and systems biology. It involves remodeling existing organisms from nature or constructing completely new synthetic organisms for applications such as protein or enzyme production, bioremediation, value-added macromolecule production, and the addition of desirable traits to crops, to name a few.
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
4.9K
Cell Lines
8.1K
A cell line is a population of cells grown in vitro that can be subcultured over several generations. Normal cells cease to divide after a certain number of cell divisions, a process known as replicative senescence. This number, called the Hayflick limit, was conceptualized by Leonard Hayflick in 1961 when he observed that fetal cells grown in culture could only divide 40-60 times. This limit is due to the shortening of the telomeres during each round of cell division, preventing cell division...
8.1K
Overview Of Cell Separation And Isolation
6.2K
Cell separation was first achieved in 1964 by S. H. Seal, who separated large tumor cells from the smaller blood cells using filtration. Two years later, Pohl and Hawk performed experiments on how cells respond differently to a nonuniform electric field based on the cell type. Such observations were the inception of cell separation methods, which allow isolating a single cell type from a heterogeneous sample.
6.2K

