I am not a biologist and looking to find some sort of description of an answer to the question above, if we have one at all.

Edited August 16, 20169 yr by EmmaWhat

I am not a biologist and looking to find some sort of description of the question above, if we know at all.

Scientists don't know but have some models. This Wiki on protocells will give you an idea of them but it's not conclusive.

Emma, no one knows how the first cell was made, but there are quite a few folks trying to figure that out. A fairly large breakthrough along those lines was announced yesterday. Gerald Joyce et al developed a sequence of RNA that acted as an enzyme known as a ribozyme, well this new ribozyme can transcribe RNA and replicate RNA. What is special here is that this is the first ribozyme to have this ability, an ability once found just in proteins. Joyce is working on the RNA World Hypothesis. But more to your point, there are a few folks working on the Lipid World Hypothesis you might want to check out. Mycelles, microspheres, protenoids etc. are all possible precursors to 'cellular life". There is an interesting face book page dedicated to abiogenesis that may be of some interest to you.