ABC-A — Advanced Biology Course on Artificial Cell
PSL Master in Life Sciences - ENS
UNBIO1-113 (PG-ABCAC-S1) | ABC-A - Advanced Biology Course on Artificial Cell
Year : 1 (M1) / 2 (M2) and PhD
Semester : 1 (S1)
Duration : 14 sessions of 2h
Hours : From September 16th to December 16th on Wednesdays, 5:15-7:15 p.m.
Venue : Institut Pierre Gilles De Gennes, 6 rue Jean Calvin, 75005, Paris
Informations to register here
Coordination
Manuel Théry, CEA
Philippe Nghe, Ecole Polytechnique
Administration contact at ENS : Bofei MA
Credits
3 ECTS
Course objectives and description
Aims and themes : The course aims to :
● Enhance understanding of life’s fundamental principles through the lens of artificial systems.
● Foster critical thinking and analytical skills by engaging with current research and data interpretation.
● Encourage collaborative learning and effective communication through student-led presentations and discussions.
Objectives :
This course will attempt to describe the components needed and how to assemble them to build a cell, as well as to identify the technical and conceptual challenges involved. The path we must take to create a cell provides insight into living organisms and what they are made of. In particular, the course will attempt to define a set of criteria that must be met for the resulting entity to be considered alive. It will also identify, among the many functions and properties of living systems, those that are essential and indispensable for the emergence and maintenance of life. Finally, this course will help advance current thinking on the definition of life and the experimental strategy to be implemented to construct a form of life.
State of the Art :
There is currently an international competition for the design and fabrication of an artificial cell. This course will provide an opportunity to review the latest research advances in understanding and implementing the fundamental mechanisms of life. This overview will help identify teams around the world working on these topics, as well as the short- and long-term goals they have set for themselves. This international mapping will help you plan your future if you wish to pursue research in this field.
State of the Art :
Beyond technical and theoretical challenges, the creation of a form of life raises ethical questions that must be addressed in each of the fields covered. These questions will not only help define potential experimental boundaries that should not be crossed but also prompt reflection on the meaning and profound significance of the undertaking for science, knowledge, and humanity.
Topics Covered :
The cell is the basic unit of life. Creating a cell from scratch therefore amounts to creating life itself—something no one has ever succeeded in doing, and which, if achieved, would overturn the dogma that every cell comes from a cell. However, it is important to note that there is currently no universally accepted definition of life. Scientists agree on a set of key mechanisms involved in the emergence of life : encoding of order within a molecular structure, autocatalysis, replication, energy transformation and consumption, circulation of matter, storage and transfer of information regarding the propagated structure, resource management, homeostasis, processing of information from the environment, adaptation, and evolution. All of these will be presented and discussed in these lectures by physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers, who will share their perspectives on these mechanisms. However, it is important to keep in mind that the exact definitions and functioning of these mechanisms are not clear to anyone. The goal of this course is therefore to give you the opportunity to interact with experts in these fields so that, collectively, we can attempt to better characterize the fundamental mechanisms of life.
Organisation : Each session is 2 hours long, divided into :
○ 10 minutes presentation by students who interviewed the speaker of the previous session.
○ 1h20 presentation by an expert, detailing milestone studies, current challenges, and their personal research.
○ 30 minutes for students to interview the speaker, with evaluations based on their performance.
Procedure and evaluation :
Each class will be led by a different guest speaker for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The final half-hour will be led by the students.
Working in groups of 2–3 people, they will conduct an interview with the speaker. By asking about their background, areas of interest, scientific choices, and position within the international research landscape in their field, you will guide them in formulating a set of relevant questions to pose to a large language model (LLM such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini). These questions will aim to foster a collective discussion on identifying key processes, the major challenges we face, and the various technical milestones needed to progress toward the development of living matter and an artificial cell. You will present ChatGPT’s responses to these questions in a 10-minute presentation at the beginning of the following week’s class.
The interviews must be recorded, and a 10-minute edited version will be released as a podcast.
Students will be evaluated on the quality of their interview and the relevance of the questions they ask. These questions should be neither too general nor too narrow and should allow for an original and engaging approach to the subject.
Course sessions and expert contributions
1- Chemistry of Life (16/09)
Ludovic Jullien (ENS Chimie)
2- Physics of Life (23/09)
Terence Strick (ENS Physique)
3- Origin of Life (30/09)
Marie-Christine Maurel (MNHN)
4- RNA world (7/10)
Philippe Nghe (Ecole Polytechnique)
5- Xenobiology / Mirror Life (14/10)
Alice Lebreton (ENS Biologie)
6- Molecular computing (21/10)
Yannick Rondelez (ESPCI)
7- Memory (28/10)
Zorana Zeravcic (ESPCI)
8- Evolution and heredity (04/11)
Olivier Rivoire (ESPCI)
9- Origin of eukaryotes (10/11 — Attention : Tuesday, November 10th, not Wednesday, November 11th)
Purification Lopez-Garcia (U. Paris-Saclay)
10- Engineering metabolism in bacteria (18/11)
Alaksh Choudhury (CEA)
11- From bacteria to cell-free systems (25/11)
Olivier Borkowski (INRAE)
12- Morphogenesis (02/12)
Alexandra Colin (IRIG)
13- Active Matter (09/12)
Jean-Christophe Gallas (U Paris-Cité)
14- Phage, virus and immunity (16/12)
Aude Bernheim (Institut Pasteur)
Application procedure
The seminars are open to everyone but with limited space for students requiring grade (30 students maximum). Registration is therefore mandatory.
Please send these information and documents in your application email to bofei.ma chez bio.ens.psl.eu :
Last name, first name, study program (PSL Life Sciences Master, other...), study year (M1, M2, Doctoral candidate), CV and motivaton letter.
Do you need to be graded to receive ECTS for this course ?
Application Deadline
July 21st 2026