Compartmentalization of biomolecules within lipid membranes is a fundamental requirement of living systems and an essential feature of many pharmaceutical therapies. However, applications of membrane-enclosed solutions of proteins, DNA, and other biologically active compounds have been limited by the difficulty of forming unilamellar vesicles with controlled contents in a repeatable manner. Here, we demonstrate a method for simultaneously creating and loading giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) using a pulsed microfluidic jet. Akin to blowing a bubble, the microfluidic jet deforms a planar lipid bilayer into a vesicle that is filled with solution from the jet and separates from the planar bilayer. In contrast with existing techniques, our method rapidly generates multiple monodisperse, unilamellar vesicles containing solutions of unrestricted composition and molecular weight. Using the microfluidic jetting technique, we demonstrate repeatable encapsulation of 500-nm particles into GUVs and show that functional pore proteins can be incorporated into the vesicle membrane to mediate transport. The ability of microfluidic jetting to controllably encapsulate solutions inside of GUVs creates new opportunities for the study and use of compartmentalized biomolecular systems in science, industry, and medicine.vortex ͉ liposome ͉ drug delivery ͉ synthetic biology

Encapsulation of macromolecules within lipid vesicles has the potential to drive biological discovery and enable development of novel, cell-like therapeutics and sensors. However, rapid and reliable production of large numbers of unilamellar vesicles loaded with unrestricted and precisely-controlled contents requires new technologies that overcome size, uniformity, and throughput limitations of existing approaches. Here we present a high-throughput microfluidic method for vesicle formation and encapsulation using an inkjet printer at rates up to 200 Hz. We show how multiple high-frequency pulses of the inkjet's piezoelectric actuator create a microfluidic jet that deforms a bilayer lipid membrane, controlling formation of individual vesicles. Variations in pulse number, pulse voltage, and solution viscosity are used to control the vesicle size. As a first step toward cell-like reconstitution using this method, we encapsulate the cytoskeletal protein actin and use co-encapsulated microspheres to track its polymerization into a densely entangled cytoskeletal network upon vesicle formation.

No abstract

No abstract

Controlling the contents of liposomes and vesicles is essential for their use in medicine, biotechnology, and basic research. Cargos such as proteins, DNA, and RNA are of growing interest for therapeutic applications as well as for fundamental studies of cellular organization and function, but controlled encapsulation and mixing of biomolecules within vesicles has been a challenge. Recently, micro fluidic encapsulation has been shown to efficiently load arbitrary solutions of biomolecules into unilamellar vesicles. This method utilizes a piezo-electrically driven liquid jet to deform a planar bilayer and form a vesicle, with the fluid vortex formed by the jet mixing the solution in the jet with the surrounding solution. Here, we describe the equipment and protocol used for loading mixtures within unilamellar vesicles by microfluidic encapsulation, and we measure the encapsulated fraction to be 79 ± 5% using a falling vesicle technique. Additionally, we find that the presence of a continuous flow from the nozzle and changes in actuation voltage polarity do not significantly affect the encapsulated fraction. These results help to guide current applications and future development of this microfluidic encapsulation technique for forming and loading unilamellar vesicles.