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Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures
Published on: May 31, 2024
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Tailoring the appearance: what will synthetic cells look like?
Willem Kasper Spoelstra1, Siddharth Deshpande1, Cees Dekker1
1Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands.
Current Opinion in Biotechnology
|November 29, 2017
Summary
Synthetic cell construction utilizes various scaffolds like liposomes, vesicles, polymersomes, emulsions, and coacervates. These structures are crucial for compartmentalization and barrier functions in artificial cells.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Synthetic Biology
- Cellular Engineering
Background:
- Synthetic cell assembly offers insights into biological cell organization and function.
- Applications include drug delivery and chemical nanofactories.
- A key component of synthetic cells is the architectural scaffold.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review potential scaffolds for synthetic cell construction.
- To categorize and discuss recent advances in scaffold development.
- To explore scaffold features for synthetic cell design.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on synthetic cell scaffolds.
- Categorization of scaffolds into membranous structures, emulsions, and coacervates.
- Discussion of recent advancements for each scaffold type.
Main Results:
- Identified membranous structures (liposomes, fatty acid vesicles, polymersomes) as potential scaffolds.
- Highlighted emulsions (droplets, colloidosomes) as viable options.
- Presented membrane-less coacervates as another class of scaffolds.
Conclusions:
- Various scaffolds are suitable for synthetic cell construction.
- Scaffolds provide essential identity, compartmentalization, and barrier functions.
- Further exploration of these scaffolds can drive synthetic cell innovation.
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