This still
involves the method of piecemeal assembly, but it is a remarkable
accomplishment, it seems to me.
From Nature.com
news:
Published
online: 06 December 2004; | doi:10.1038/news041206-2
Artificial cells take shape
Philip Ball
Bacterium-sized 'protein factories' are a step along the road to
synthetic life.
Primitive cells similar to bacteria have
been created by US researchers. These synthetic cells are not truly alive,
because they cannot replicate or evolve. But they can churn out proteins for
days, and could be useful for drug production, as well as advancing the quest
to build artificial life from scratch.