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Scientists are captivated by the prospect of creating a fully synthetic cell, offering the potential to revolutionize biology, medicine and biotechnology. In this Viewpoint, a panel of experts discusses the definitions of a synthetic cell and highlights current achievements, challenges and future opportunities of building such systems.
Embedded within the complexity of biological systems lies a formidable task: deciphering the intricate architecture of macromolecules. In this Viewpoint, a panel of experts discuss the key challenges and opportunities of macromolecular structure determination, highlighting the crucial synergy between empirical experimentation and artificial intelligence-based techniques in unravelling these complexities.
To celebrate almost 50 years from the discovery of tubulin, six eminent researchers reflect on how the field of microtubule research has advanced over the past five decades, discuss impacts on clinical translation, and provide their thoughts on what key questions need to be addressed in the near future.
Five experts discuss their views on the main achievements and challenges of synthetic biology in basic and applied science, consider potential ethical issues, and describe how synthetic biology relates to disciplines such as systems biology and computational modelling.
The past few years have marked significant anniversaries in the field of signal transduction. Here, six researchers reflect on the context in which these discoveries were made, and how our concept of cell signalling has evolved during the past three decades.
Researchers assess the contribution of studies in three-dimensional (3D) systems to our understanding of cell migration, both in terms of the mechanisms used to drive single cell and collective cell migration and how cells adapt to a changing environment.
Six scientists in the field of stem cell research comment on our basic understanding of stem cells and other pluripotent cells, on their potential therapeutic use and on key challenges that remain.
Researchers from across the field consider the new concepts that have emerged during the past decade of molecular cell biology research, and the key challenges still to be met.
