The life is generated on the primitive Earth as a result of complex chemical reaction network and self-organization of amphiphilic molecules and macromolecules, so-called soft matter. The life has a very unique nature in contrast to the material: it establishes the domain of the individual by enclosing it with a membrane (cells), synthesizes the energy molecules and building blocks of the individual from the nutrients (metabolism), reproduces itself by using them (self-production). The reproduced offspring has the same self-reproduction property of the parent (heredity). It is a great challenge to understand the life system based on the non-equilibrium soft-matter physics.

Fig. 1. Schematic representation from the origin of life to multicellular organisms.

We consider that the key of the life system is the interplay between the growth and division of cell membranes (proliferation) and the informational macromolecules that encourage the membrane growth. Recently we have developed the model life system (minimal cell), which consists of the “vesicle template”-assisted enzymatic polymerization of aniline of occurring on the surface of AOT vesicles and on the selective uptake of AOT molecules from the external solution by the vesicles through a specific interaction with polyaniline (Fig. 2). This system contains (i) a kind of metabolism which extracts usable molecules from the environment, and (ii) reproduction, i.e., growth and division of vesicles. Based on this minimal cell, we have been investigating to generate a more advanced minimal cell that can sustainable and autonomous proliferation system. We hope that our research will shed light on a way from the material to the life.

Fig. 2. General scheme of the AOT-polyaniline based minimal cell and observed vesicle growth and division (photos).