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Artificial cells with model nuclei mass-produced using microfluidic devices

A research group has developed a technology for mass-producing uniform artificial cells (lipid bilayer vesicles) with artificial model nuclei using microfluidic devices with high reproducibility. They also demonstrated that protein synthesis from these model nuclei was possible. The team was led by Professor Suzuki Hiroaki from Faculty of Science and Engineering at Chuo University. The paper is in the journal JACS Au.

Research on bottom-up construction of the cell model by combining molecules such as lipids, DNA, and proteins is advancing globally, and in recent years, research on reproducing the complex hierarchical structures found in eukaryotic cells has accelerated.

Among the various organelles within cells, the nucleus is the largest and the most important organelle where genomic DNA is condensed. If this structure could be mimicked within artificial cells, they would become closer to actual living cells, leading to the development of future cell-replacement biotechnology.

This research group has previously developed microfluidic devices as uniform artificial cell production lines. In this study, they utilized this microfluidic device to encapsulate ingredients necessary to form DNA condensates (DNA nanostars and salt) into cell-sized uniform lipid membrane vesicles (liposomes). Then, they concentrated ingredients by inducing volume changes of vesicles using osmotic action to generate uniform model nuclei.

Conventionally, thermal annealing was necessary to prepare DNA condensates, but it could induce devastating effects on other components comprising artificial cells. The present approach achieves the construction of model nuclei while preserving other enzymes and reaction systems within artificial cells by controlling the concentration changes of materials. As a result, they succeeded in synthesizing green fluorescent protein (GFP) from genes incorporated into these model nuclei.

These artificial cells with model nuclei are expected to provide additional functions such as molecular recognition and environmental response, and we expect this to be utilized for the creation of artificial cells that can replace natural cells in the future.