How did life on Earth begin? What ingredients would you need to build a cell from scratch? In his lab, Jack Szostak, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, recreates the chemistry of the early Earth.

Engineering skills and materials technology allow us to restore, improve or even replace biological tissues. Bob Langer is a pioneer in the interdisciplinary field of tissue engineering.

Frances Arnold, who one year later was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, talks about her ground-breaking research, where evolutionary principles are applied to develop new enzymes not found in nature. These enzymes can be used to make new materials, to produce renewable fuels and to make pharmaceutical compounds using more environmental-friendly methods.

Jennifer Doudna, along with Emmanuelle Charpentier, is a leading figure in what is referred to as the ”CRISPR revolution”, technology that can be used to edit genes within organisms. CRISPR technology has become an important tool in basic research, as well as in the development of biotechnology products, and treatment of diseases.

Emmanuelle Charpentier, along with Jennifer Doudna, is a leading figure in what is referred to as the ”CRISPR revolution”, technology that can be used to edit genes within organisms. CRISPR technology has become an important tool in basic research, as well as in the development of biotechnology products, and treatment of diseases.

Dan Gibson from the J Craig Venter Institute talks about their efforts to synthesize complete bacterial genomes, which enabled them to make the first synthetic bacterial cell.

Leroy Hood has pioneered the field called systems biology, and is the father of several ground-breaking scientific instruments which have enabled major advances in the biological sciences. He describes the future of medicine as predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory, also known as P4 Medicine, and says we can improve health and prevent disease by tracking individual data such as genome sequence, and regular samples of blood, and other body fluids, stored in data clouds.

It is likely that RNA is the ancestor to DNA. Gerald Joyce is a pioneer in the field of in vitro evolution. He seeks to to re-create the biomolecules of early life in a test tube, making building blocks of RNA assemble, replicate and evolve.

Metabolism is a core function in the cell. Jens Nielsen shows how we can use knowledge from metabolism in yeast cells to the benefit of mankind, for example to engineer cell factories, diagnose disease and improve energy uptake from food

All complex life on Earth is composed of eukaryotic cells. Nick Lane, scientist and award-winning author, says eukaryotes arose just once in 4 billion years, via an endosymbiosis — bacteria entered a simple host cell, evolving into mitochondria, the ‘powerhouses’ of complex cells.

Snail shell spirals are often used as examples of chirality in nature. The direction of the spiral can be either left- or right-oriented, but the handedness also determines location of the internal organs. Reiko Kuroda shows how the handedness of the snails can be changed by mechanical manipulation as well as a point mutation.