Recent Advances in Microfluidic Technologies for the Construction of Artificial Cells

Abstract

Artificial cells are synthetic constructs that emulate natural cells, with potential applications in areas of energy science, environmental treatment, and the study of life's origins. Nevertheless, the construction of artificial cells is a formidable undertaking, given the intricate nature of natural cells in structures, functions, and working mechanisms. With precise control, high automation, and excellent uniformity, microfluidics has emerged as a promising approach for the construction of artificial cells. This review summarizes the latest microfluidic techniques utilized to construct artificial cells, ranging from simple droplets to sophisticated cell‐inspired systems. These include the generation of droplets, the production of vesicles (lipid‐based and polymer‐based vesicles), the fabrication of polymeric microparticles with various compartments, shapes, and microstructures, as well as the manufacture of sophisticated cell‐inspired systems. The characteristics of different methods for the construction of artificial cells are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the wide‐ranging applications of artificial cells are also showcased. Finally, contemporary obstacles and forthcoming advancements are discussed in the field of microfluidic‐based artificial cells. This review is supposed to stimulate research in the construction of more functional and natural‐like artificial cells, as well as works in the fields of material, biology, environment, medicine, and energy.

Multicompartment Synthetic Vesicles for Artificial Cell Applications

“…While emulsion-based techniques are efficient and versatile for various types of molecules, achieving monodispersity in the size of multicompartment vesicles remains challenging. , To overcome this challenge, microfluidic techniques have been developed, offering enhanced precision in the construction of multicompartment vesicles. , Microfluidic devices enable the generation of single vesicles through the precise control of fluid flow within microchannels. Briefly, an oil phase and an aqueous phase are initially introduced into separate inlets, flowing through the microchannels, where they meet at a designated junction.…”

Molecular Communication Approaches for Wetware Artificial Life: A Workshop Report

“…According to another approach, cell-like systems are built from scratch, i.e., by assembling purified molecular components such as DNA plasmids, enzymes, energy-rich metabolites, lipids, amino acids, etc., to give rise to micro-compartments as those shown in Figure 1a. The assembly procedure can be accomplished thanks to technologies in the field of liposomes, emulsions, coacervates, and microfluidics [27][28][29][30][31], and also thanks to the recent developments of cell-free multi-enzymatic systems, for example, the ones capable of producing proteins from the corresponding genes [32,33]. Notably, the cell-like systems constructed by this second approach (often called "bottom-up") are, to date, not alive.…”