Kate Adamala

“We built a cell-like system that is fully chemically defined, so there are no unknown building blocks in it,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala described the SpudCell system as fully chemically defined with no unknown building blocks.

“We believe that if we make a cell from scratch, that's fully engineerable,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala said she believes a cell made from scratch would be fully engineerable.

“We need to highlight that bioengineering can offer a solution. That's why I'm doing it.”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala said bioengineering can offer a solution to the climate crisis.

“Biotic is a funding agency that is going to globally fund this work,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala described Biotic, her nonprofit, as a funding agency that will globally fund synthetic cell research.

“It's capable of doing things that people up until now used to think only natural living cells can do.”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala said the system can do things previously thought possible only for natural living cells.

“It's probably at least a couple of decades from now when we can actually scale it up to the point where we can replace all the petrochemicals with biology, but I do believe it's doable.”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala estimated it could take at least a couple of decades to scale the technology to replace petrochemicals.

“I do not believe [SpudCell] is alive,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala told Live Science she does not believe SpudCell is alive, describing it instead as a framework.

“I feel this incredible stressful urgency that if we don't get to work on it now, then we're going to run out of time,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala expressed urgency about developing synthetic cell technology in the context of the climate crisis.

“[SpudCell] is not an engineering platform that can give you any useful product, but it's step one,”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala acknowledged SpudCell is not yet an engineering platform that can produce useful products.

“all the chemicals we need for our civilization with biology.”

Kate Adamala · said date not stated · reported 2026-07-06

Adamala describes SpudCell as a framework that could generate chemicals needed for civilization.