Open Access

Christine M. E. Kriebisch, Olga Bantysh, Lorena Baranda Pellejero, Andrea Belluati, Eva Bertosin, Kun Dai, Maria de Roy, Hailin Fu, Nicola Galvanetto, Julianne M. Gibbs, Samuel Santhosh Gomez, Gaetano Granatelli, Alessandra Griffo, Maria Guix, Cenk Onur Gurdap, Johannes Harth-Kitzerow, Ivar S. Haugerud, Gregor Häfner, Pranay Jaiswal, Sadaf Javed, Ashkan Karimi, Shuzo Kato, Brigitte A. K. Kriebisch, Sudarshana Laha, Pao-Wan Lee, Wojciech P. Lipinski, Thomas Matreux, Thomas C. T. Michaels, Erik Poppleton, Alexander Ruf, Annemiek D. Slootbeek, Iris B. A. Smokers, Héctor Soria-Carrera, Alessandro Sorrenti, Michele Stasi, Alisdair Stevenson, Advait Thatte, Mai Tran, Merlijn H. I. van Haren, Hidde D. Vuijk, Shelley F. J. Wickham, Pablo Zambrano, Katarzyna P. Adamala, Karen Alim, Ebbe Sloth Andersen, Claudia Bonfio, Dieter Braun, Erwin Frey, Ulrich Gerland, Wilhelm T. S. Huck, Frank Jülicher, Nadanai Laohakunakorn, L. Mahadavan, Sijbren Otto, James Saenz, Petra Schwille, Kerstin Göpfrich, Christoph A. Weber, Job Boekhoven

• The synthesis of life from non-living matter has captivated and divided scientists for centuries. This bold goal aims at unraveling the fundamental principles of life and leveraging its unique features, such as its resilience, sustainability, and ability to evolve. Synthetic life represents more than an academic milestone—it has the potential to revolutionize biotechnology, medicine, and materials science. Although the fields of synthetic biology, systems chemistry, and biophysics have made great strides toward synthetic life, progress has been hindered by social, philosophical, and technical challenges, such as vague goals, misaligned interdisciplinary efforts, and incompletely addressing public and ethical concerns. Our perspective offers a roadmap toward the synthesis of life based on discussions during a 2-week workshop with scientists from around the globe.