Microfluidic production of porous polymer cell-mimics capable of gene expression

2021/01/18 by Banlaki, Imre, Lehr, Francois-Xavier, Niederholtmeyer, Henrike · 1 citation
#Biomolecules (q-bio.BM) #FOS: Biological sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2101.07135

Abstract

Engineering simple, artificial models of living cells allows synthetic biologists to study cellular functions under well-controlled conditions. Reconstituting multicellular behaviors with synthetic cell-mimics is still a challenge because it requires efficient communication between individual compartments in large populations. This protocol presents a microfluidic method to produce large quantities of cell-mimics with highly porous, stable and chemically modifiable polymer membranes that can be programmed on demand with nucleus-like DNA-hydrogel compartments for gene expression. We describe expression of genes encoded in the hydrogel compartment and communication between neighboring cell-mimics through diffusive protein signals.

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• Controlled protein synthesis and spatial organisation in microfluidic environments

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