Protocellular Materials: A Floating Mold Technique for the Programmed Assembly of Protocells into Protocellular Materials Capable of Non‐Equilibrium Biochemical Sensing (Adv. Mater. 24/2021)

Polymer Coatings Comprised Entirely of Soft and Semipermeable Microcapsules

“…The structures of these hollow-capsule assemblies differ from those of open-cell structures fabricated in previous studies by the deposition of bulk polymer or thin films on assemblies of sacrificial microparticle cores − but are similar in some respects to recently reported “protocellular” structures assembled from larger populations of microscale protein/polymer- or lipid-based vesicles. − The iterative approach to assembly used here allows for the design of compartmentalized capsule assemblies composed of mixtures of different types of capsules. The capsule assemblies described here were fabricated using two kinds of reactive capsules; however, in principle, this approach could be used to design assemblies containing many different capsules with different individual properties (e.g., physicochemical properties, encapsulated cargo, stimuli responsiveness, permeability, etc.).…”

“…The structures of these hollow-capsule assemblies differ from those of porous materials fabricated by the deposition of polymers on close-packed spherical templates, which typically leads to materials with open-cell structures. − These materials also differ substantially in structure, form, and scale from previously reported LbL films that contain embedded liposomal structures − or hydrogel microparticles. − Those and other related materials , are also subcompartmentalized and have been investigated as hosts for agents in a broad range of applied contexts but have structures and properties that are different from the coatings reported here, which consist entirely of interconnected and hollow microscale polymer capsules. In this latter context, the materials reported here are similar, in some ways, to recently reported “protocellular” materials and, more broadly, to other microcompartmentalized structures assembled from aggregates of semipermeable protein/polymer or lipid vesicles. − The methods reported here enable the design of capsule assemblies composed of mixtures of multiple different types of capsules with different physical properties or contents and could thus prove to be useful in contexts ranging from drug delivery and catalysis to new and general methods for the design of novel and responsive soft material coatings.…”

Synthetic‐Cell‐Based Multi‐Compartmentalized Hierarchical Systems

“…Surprisingly, these integrated systems have been shown to exhibit higherorder emergent behaviors and functions, mimicking the more advanced life forms. Notably, large gaps in life sciences and materials science have been bridged by some fantastic applications of these systems, such as cucurbit-like nano-motor, [179] nonequilibrium biochemical sensing, [170] chemical-mediated microactuators, [169] synthetic tissue capable of producing NO for vasodilation, [114] etc. These applications happen to match the objective of the biomimetic materials, which mimic and learn from nature and use it by ourselves.…”

“…Therefore, by using bio-orthogonal adhesion of azide-or alkyne-functionalized proteinosomes in the oil layer that floats above water, Galanti et al developed a floating mold technique for fabricating multisized programmed arrays with arbitrary shapes based on a floating poly(tetrafluoroethylene) mold. [170] The characteristics of stabilization and accessible communication in water endowed the programmed arrays with the capability of emergent nonequilibrium spatiotemporal sensing behavior, which could dynamically translate and output signals, thereby providing a new horizon for bridging the gap between bottom-up synthetic biology and biomimetic materials.…”

Toward Artificial Cell‐Mediated Tissue Engineering: A New Perspective

“…Wang et al reported phospholipid assemblies in tubular, conical, spherical, or cisternal stacked structures as artificial cell models to fabricate artificial tissues, [82] and Galanti et al followed a molding approach to create assembled artificial cells where they modified the cell membrane via bio-orthogonal chemistry to help accumulation behavior. [83] They assembled different populations of azide and BCN-modified proteinosomes by using a poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) mold that floats on a polysorbate solution. The proteinosomes were assembled via the synergistic locomotion of buoyancy and the Marangoni flow within the empty grids of the mold.…”