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.
@article{arxiv.2101.07135,
title = {Microfluidic production of porous polymer cell-mimics capable of gene expression},
author = {Imre Banlaki and Francois-Xavier Lehr and Henrike Niederholtmeyer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.07135},
year = {2021}
}