Artificial systems capable of self-sustained movement with self-sufficient energy are of high interest with respect to the development of many challenging applications, including medical treatments, but also technical applications. The bottom-up assembly of such systems in the context of synthetic biology is still a challenging task. In this work, we demonstrate the biocompatibility and efficiency of an artificial light-driven energy module and a motility functional unit by integrating light-switchable photosynthetic vesicles with demembranated flagella. The flagellar propulsion is coupled to the beating frequency, and dynamic ATP synthesis in response to illumination allows us to control beating frequency of flagella in a light-dependent manner. In addition, we verified the functionality of light-powered synthetic vesicles in in vitro motility assays by encapsulating microtubules assembled with force-generating kinesin-1 motors and the energy module to investigate the dynamics of a contractile filamentous network in cell-like compartments by optical stimulation. Integration of this photosynthetic system with various biological building blocks such as cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors may contribute to the bottom-up synthesis of artificial cells that are able to undergo motor-driven morphological deformations and exhibit directional motion in a light-controllable fashion.

The manipulation of droplets via a magnetic field forms the basis of a fascinating technology that is currently in development. Often, the movement of droplets with magnets involves adding magnetic particles in or around the droplet; alternatively, magneto responsive surfaces may also be used. This work, presents and characterizes experimentally the formation and properties of a tunable superparamagnetic ring (tSPRing), which precisely adjusts itself around a water droplet, due to liquid–liquid interaction, and enables the physical manipulation of droplets. The ring is made of an oil‐based ferrofluid, a stable suspension of ferromagnetic particles in an oily phase. It appears spontaneously due to the oil–water interfacial interaction under the influence of a magnetic field. The ferrofluid–water interaction resembles a cupcake assembly, with the surrounding ring only at the base of the droplet. The ring is analogous to a soft matter ring magnet, showing dipole repulsive forces, which stabilizes the droplets on a surface. It enables robust, controllable, and programmable manipulation of enclosed water droplets. This work opens the door to new applications in open surface upside or upside‐down microfluidics and lays the groundwork for new studies on tunable interfaces between two immiscible liquids.

Droplet Manipulation In article number 2100178, Fernando Benito‐Lopez, Lourdes Basabe‐Desmonts, and Vahid Nasirimarekani show that the interaction between an oil‐based ferrofluid and a drop of water results in the formation of a ferrofluid ring around the drop of water. The ring behaves like a soft matter dipole, disappearing once the magnetic field is removed. The set takes the shape of a cupcake and allows precise movement of the drop on a surface, even on inverted surfaces.

Suspensions of microtubules and nonadsorbing particles form thick and long bundles due to depletion forces. Such interactions act at the nanometer scale and define the structural and dynamical properties of the resulting networks. In this study, we analyze the depletion forces exerted by two types of nonadsorbing particles, namely, the polymer, poly­(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and the block copolymer, Pluronic. We characterize their effects both in passive and active networks by adding motor proteins to the suspensions. By exploiting its bundling effect via entropic forces, we observed that PEG generates a network with thick structures showing a nematic order and larger mesh size. On the other hand, Pluronic builds up a much denser gel-like network without a recognizable mesh structure. This difference is also reflected in the network activity. PEG networks show moderate contraction in lateral directions while Pluronic networks exhibit faster and isotropic contraction. Interestingly, by mixing the two nonadsorbing polymers in different ratios, we observed that the system showed a behavior that exhibited properties of both agents, leading to a robust and fast responsive structure compared to the single-depletant networks. In conclusion, we show how passive osmotic compression modifies the distribution of biopolymers. Its combination with active motors results in a new active material with potential for nanotechnological applications.