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

TL;DR

This paper introduces a microfluidic technique to produce porous polymer cell-mimics with DNA-hydrogel compartments capable of gene expression and communication, advancing synthetic biology models of multicellular behaviors.

Contribution

It presents a novel microfluidic method to create large quantities of porous, stable, and programmable cell-mimics with gene expression and inter-mimic communication capabilities.

Findings

Successful gene expression within hydrogel compartments.

Demonstrated communication between neighboring cell-mimics.

Produced large quantities of functional cell-mimics.

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.