Artificial Cells: Perspective on Reconstructing Biological Cells and "Out of the Box" Innovations

The first artificial cell (Chang 1957, 1964) was in the form of artificial red blood cells (RBCs), one of the most important cells because all cells, tissues, organs, and indeed the human being need it for survival. I first reconstructed artificial RBCs in vitro. This is made of cellular dimensions with ultrathin membranes of polymer, crosslinked protein, protein-lipid, or lipid. The next step in this work is to develop this for actual use to replace RBCs in the body. This is a more complex task requiring modifying the configuration and dimensions. Instead of starting with all three functions, a bottom-up approach is used. First, one with only oxygen transport function shows promising results in clinical trials with patients. A future direction is the development of artificial cells that have all three red blood cell functions including antioxidant, oxygen, and CO₂ transport. My research group has also been doing innovative research going outside the box of RBCs. This way, extensive variations in contents, membranes, dimensions, and configurations are possible. This allows for worldwide and innovative applications that encompass hemoperfusion, delivery systems, COVID-19 vaccines, cancer therapy, therapy for hereditary enzyme defects like phenylketonuria, cell/stem cell therapy, microbes, nanomedicine, biotherapeutics, gene therapy, regenerative medicine, agricultural applications, aquatic culture, fermentation, nanorobotics, and other areas.