{"id":2250,"date":"2018-12-03T17:05:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T08:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/163.180.4.222\/lab\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2018-12-03T17:05:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T08:05:32","slug":"artificial-cells-gain-communication-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=2250","title":{"rendered":"Artificial cells gain communication skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

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No biologist would mistake the microscopic \u201ccells\u201d that chemical biologist Neal Devaraj and colleagues are whipping up at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), for the real thing. Instead of the lipid membrane that swaddles our cells, these cell mimics wear a coat of plastic\u2014polymerized acrylate. And although they harbor a nucleuslike compartment containing DNA, it lacks a membrane like a real cell’s nucleus, and its main ingredients are minerals found in clay.<\/p>\n

Yet these mock cells are cutting-edge, \u201cthe closest anyone has come to building an actual functioning synthetic eukaryotic cell,\u201d says synthetic biologist Kate Adamala of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who was not part of the work. Like real cells, the spheres can send protein signals to their neighbors, triggering communal behavior. And as Devaraj and his team revealed in a preprint recently posted on the bioRxiv site, the \u201cnucleus\u201d talks to the rest of the cell, releasing RNA that sparks the synthesis of proteins. The artificial nuclei can even respond to signals from other cell mimics. \u201cThis may be the most important paper in synthetic biology this year,\u201d Adamala says.<\/p>\n

Synthetic biologists have big dreams for artificial cells. Compared with simpler synthetic structures, such as the liposomes that are already being used to transport certain drugs in the body, they could be more sensitive to their environment and perform a greater variety of jobs. In the future, artificial cells may deliver drugs more precisely to their targets, hunt down cancer cells, detect toxic chemicals, or improve the accuracy of diagnostic testing. Arrays of interacting synthetic cells could form artificial tissues and smart materials that sense and adapt to their surroundings. As scientists struggle to devise cell facsimiles, they may also learn more about how life originated and overcame some of the same engineering challenges.<\/p>\n

Performing some functions of a cell, such as manufacturing proteins and duplicating DNA, in isolation won’t be enough. \u201cIf we are going to develop synthetic materials, we need to have the individual units cooperate,\u201d Devaraj says. Researchers had already devised synthetic cells that can communicate with each other by exchanging relatively small molecules such as sugars and hydrogen peroxide. However, Devaraj notes, many of the molecular signals in our bodies, including the hormone insulin and the cytokines that fire up our immune cells, are proteins and are typically much larger.<\/p>\n

To make a more cell-like cell mimic, Devaraj and his colleagues stepped away from nature. Their latest pseudocells \u201clook a little bit like natural cells, but they are made of completely artificial materials,\u201d says co-author Henrike Niederholtmeyer, a synthetic biologist at UCSD. The researchers used a silicon chip with microscopic fluid-filled channels to extrude tiny droplets that contain raw materials such as DNA, minerals from clay, and individual acrylate molecules. Ultraviolet light and chemical treatment spurred a porous membrane to form around each droplet. At the same time, the minerals and DNA inside the droplet condensed into a gel with the texture of a soft contact lens, creating a version of the nucleus, Devaraj says.<\/p>\n

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