Mechanical Division of Cell-Sized Liposomes

Area of Science:

• Synthetic Biology
• Biophysics
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Liposomes are vital model systems in biology due to their cell-membrane-like structure.
• Controlling liposome physical properties like division is key for advancing synthetic and cellular biology.
• Existing liposome division methods lack control, efficiency, and symmetry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a precise and efficient method for dividing cell-sized liposomes.
• To explore microfluidics for controlled mechanical liposome division.
• To establish a foundation for a growth-division cycle in synthetic cells.

Main Methods:

• Utilized microfluidics with a Y-shaped bifurcation for mechanical liposome division.
• Employed octanol-assisted liposome assembly (OLA) for on-chip liposome production.
• Investigated the influence of surface area-to-volume ratio and liposome size on division probability.

Main Results:

• Achieved rapid (milliseconds) and highly symmetric division of ∼6 μm liposomes.
• Demonstrated that division probability is tunable via osmotic pressure and correlates with liposome size.
• Observed minimal content leakage during the mechanical division process.

Conclusions:

• Microfluidics offers a controlled and efficient strategy for liposome mechanical division.
• This method yields symmetric daughter liposomes with low leakage, overcoming limitations of prior techniques.
• The developed technique is a significant step towards creating self-sustaining synthetic cell systems.