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Protocell Division: Membrane Growth & Excess-Area Fission

Interactive 3D synthetic-cell simulator: a lipid-vesicle protocell grows its membrane and encapsulated content under nutrient limits, then divides when excess membrane area crosses a fission threshold — a real model for how minimal synthetic cells self-replicate.

Molecular Biology3DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

A minimal synthetic cell — a lipid vesicle enclosing a cell-free expression system — doesn't need genes to divide. This simulator grows each protocell's membrane area and encapsulated macromolecule content under shared, depleting nutrients, tracks the excess-area ratio ν between the real membrane area and the smallest area a sphere of that volume could have, and splits the vesicle into two daughters the moment ν crosses a fission threshold. Watch the population grow, divide, and saturate as the nutrient pool runs down, with live readouts for population size, total divisions, and remaining nutrients.

⚙ Under the hood

A minimal synthetic cell — a lipid vesicle enclosing a cell-free expression system — grows its membrane and encapsulated content under nutrient limits, then physically splits into two daughters when the excess membrane area crosses a fission threshold, no genes required.

synthetic biologyprotocellvesiclecell divisionbiophysicsorigin of life

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install