SEED 2015

Boston, MA

Engineering artificial mechanosensitive cells by combining cell-free expression and ultrathin double emulsion template

Jin Woo Lee1,*, Kenneth K.Y. Ho1,*, Allen P. Liu1,2,3,4

1Mechanical Engineering Department, 2Biomedical Engineering Department, 3Cellular and

Molecular Biology program, 4Biophysics program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
* contributed equally to this work
Assembling biological parts into a biologically functional system using a bottom-up in vitro reconstitution approach offers the possibility of designing artificial cells with the ability of sensing and responding to external stimuli. Artificial cells are defined as the encapsulation of biologically active material in a biological or synthetic membrane. Here, we describe a robust and general method to produce artificial cells for the purpose of mimicking one or more behaviors of a cell. A microfluidic double emulsion system is used to encapsulate a mammalian cell-free expression system that is able to express membrane proteins into the bilayer or soluble proteins inside the vesicles. The development of a robust platform that allows the assembly of artificial cells is valuable in understanding subcellular functions and emergent behaviors in a more cell-like environment as well as for creating novel signaling pathways to achieve specific cellular behaviors. As a test bed, we are engineering mechanosensitive vesicles to respond to the external physical environment. The platform development and inclusion of additional information processing components could potentially open up new applications in biosensing and medicine.