The high art of folding: building synthetic cells with RNA origami

The aim of synthetic biology is to create life from non-living building blocks. A new technology paves a previously unknown path: It uses the multifunctionality of the natural biomolecule RNA and folds it into new building blocks, making protein synthesis, which was previously essential, unnecessary. A breakthrough has recently been achieved with this RNA origami technique: the development of an artificial cytoskeleton for synthetic cells - the potential basis for a more complex RNA machinery. The technology is already used in synthetic immunology.