We don't yet have an API to create a list, but you can create a SampleSet using the LABKEY.Exp.SampleSet.create() API. I'm not sure why it isn't showing up in our public API, but you can see an example in Experiment.js around line 613:

https://www.labkey.org/download/clientapi_docs/javascript-api/symbols/src/api_webapp_clientapi_core_Experiment.js.html