Droplet-based microfluidics for artificial cell generation: a brief review

Martino, Chiara; deMello, Andrew J.

doi:10.1098/rsfs.2016.0011

Cited by 127 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(128 reference statements)

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“…Utilization of microfluidic technologies to construct biological systems in cell size and to mimic living cells have drawn much attention . Owning to the cytomimetic properties, sophisticated coacervate microdroplets are becoming widely used in artificial cell engineering.…”

Section: Synthesizing Artificial Cells By Microfluidicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

Xie

Xiong

et al. 2019

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117

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Fabrication of artificial biomimetic materials has attracted abundant attention. As one of the subcategories of biomimetic materials, artificial cells are highly significant for multiple disciplines and their synthesis has been intensively pursued. In order to manufacture robust “alive” artificial cells with high throughput, easy operation, and precise control, flexible microfluidic techniques are widely utilized. Herein, recent advances in microfluidic‐based methods for the synthesis of droplets, vesicles, and artificial cells are summarized. First, the advances of droplet fabrication and manipulation on the T‐junction, flow‐focusing, and coflowing microfluidic devices are discussed. Then, the formation of unicompartmental and multicompartmental vesicles based on microfluidics are summarized. Furthermore, the engineering of droplet‐based and vesicle‐based artificial cells by microfluidics is also reviewed. Moreover, the artificial cells applied for imitating cell behavior and acting as bioreactors for synthetic biology are highlighted. Finally, the current challenges and future trends in microfluidic‐based artificial cells are discussed. This review should be helpful for researchers in the fields of microfluidics, biomaterial fabrication, and synthetic biology.

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Section: Synthesizing Artificial Cells By Microfluidicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

Xie

Xiong

et al. 2019

Small

117

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“…20 For artificial cell applications, phospholipid is typically used instead, in an organic phase such as chloroform, hexane, and octanol. 21 …”

Section: Selection Of Surfactantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Droplet microfluidics for synthetic biology

et al. 2017

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“…Polymersomes, obtained through self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers, also play a relevant role as cell mimics [64,65]. In this encapsulation process, microfluidic methods playing a key role which offer unprecedented control over vesicle/polymersomes size, encapsulation efficiency, and membrane homogeneity [66]. The cellular processes involved during de novo construction of artificial cells include gene expression, protein expression, self-reproduction, nutrient synthesis, and energy conversion, etc.…”

Section: Manipulation Of Motile Microbes: Their Exploitation As Micromentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of nanocomposites and hybrid materials using microbial biotemplates

Shi

Ullah

et al. 2017

Adv Compos Hybrid Mater

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Microbes are important part of life that vary in sizes and shapes, diverse surface chemistry and biology, and porous nature of their cell walls. Besides their importance in industrial processes such as fermentation, these serve as biotemplates and provide a biomimetic approach for fabrication of multifarious complex constructs with predefined features, ordered composites and hybrid nanomaterials, microdevices, and micro/nanorobots through various strategies. The template or building blocks for such approaches can be bacterial, algal, and fungal cells or virus particles. Here, we have summarized recent advancements in biofabrication based on live microbes. Using engineering approaches and suitable methods, live microbes can be manipulated as functional Bmicro/nanodevices and -robots^to further perform biological functions such as replication, distribution, motility, formation of colonies, and secretion of metabolites at will. Biofabrication based on microbes provides effective methods to control and manipulate microbes as functional live building blocks to create micro/nanodevices and -robots for biomedical and energy applications.

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Droplet-based microfluidics for artificial cell generation: a brief review

Cited by 127 publications

References 93 publications

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

Droplet microfluidics for synthetic biology

Fabrication of nanocomposites and hybrid materials using microbial biotemplates

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