Now this is pretty interesting work in my mind. Essentially they are expressing genes of their choice to make proteins, in this case a cool looking green fluorescent protein, but I’m sure the technique is adaptable. Amazing.

The soft cell walls are made of fat molecules taken from egg white. The cell contents are an extract of the common gut bug E. coli, stripped of all its genetic material.

This essence of life contains ready-made much of the biological machinery needed to make proteins; the researchers also added an enzyme from a virus to allow the vesicle to translate DNA code.

When they added genes, the cell fluid started to make proteins, just like a normal cell would.

A gene for green fluorescent protein taken from a species of jellyfish was the first they tried. The glow from the protein showed that the genes were being transcribed.

via WorldChanging
via Near Near Future
via PSFK
via BBC News