Millennium Problems for Biology Outlined

Introduction to Biological Millennium Problems

A set of "Millennium Problems" has been outlined for the field of biology, aiming to define grand challenges that, if solved, would significantly advance scientific understanding. These problems are designed to be specific and measurable, providing clear criteria for success.

Emergence of Life Challenge

One problem requires demonstrating the unassisted emergence of self-replicating RNA- and protein-based cells from a primordial soup in a laboratory setting. Successful demonstration necessitates that emergent cells increase abundance by a factor of 10^6, maintain indefinite division potential, and possess clear heritable genetic information encoding.

Cryopreservation and Recovery of Organisms

Another challenge involves demonstrating the reversible cryopreservation of live, intact, wild-type adult mice. The criteria include maintaining the frozen state for at least 24 hours, achieving over 99% viability upon recovery, and ensuring no permanent organ damage. Ethical approval is required for all experiments.

Reverse Translation Enzyme Development

The third problem focuses on creating an enzyme capable of "reverse translating" an arbitrary peptide sequence into RNA or DNA. This enzyme must be a purified protein catalyst or complex that reads an untagged polypeptide and synthesizes a compatible nucleic acid strand without templates or database lookups. The resulting nucleic acid must be compatible with ordinary polymerases and ligases.