Creation of Artificial Cell-Like Structures Promoted by Microfluidics Technologies

Microfluidics Based Particle and Droplet Generation for Gene and Drug Delivery Approaches

Microfluidics-based droplets have emerged as a powerful technology for biomedical research, offering precise control over droplet size and structure, optimal mixing of solutions, and prevention of cross-contamination. It is a major branch of microfluidic technology with applications in diagnostic testing, imaging, separation, and gene amplification. This review discusses the different aspects of microfluidic devices, droplet generation techniques, droplet types, and the production of micro/nano particles, along with their advantages and limitations. Passive and active methods for droplet formation are discussed, as well as the manipulation of droplet shape and content. This review also highlights the potential applications of droplet microfluidics in tissue engineering, cancer therapy, and drug delivery systems. The use of microfluidics in the production of lipid nanoparticles and polymeric microparticles is also presented, with emphasis on their potential in drug delivery and biomedical research. Finally, the contributions of microfluidics to vaccines, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and future perspectives are discussed, emphasizing the need for continuous innovation and integration with other technologies, such as AI and wearable devices, to further enhance its potential in personalized medicine and drug delivery. However, it is also noted that challenges in commercialization and widespread adoption still need to be addressed.

Microfluidic technologies for lipid vesicle generation

Encapsulating biological and non-biological materials in lipid vesicles presents significant potential in both industrial and academic settings. When smaller than 100 nm, lipid vesicles and lipid nanoparticles are ideal vehicles for drug delivery, facilitating the delivery of payloads, improving pharmacokinetics, and reducing the off-target effects of therapeutics. When larger than 1 μm, vesicles are useful as model membranes for biophysical studies, as synthetic cell chassis, as bio-inspired supramolecular devices, and as the basis of protocells to explore the origin of life. As applications of lipid vesicles gain prominence in the fields of nanomedicine, biotechnology, and synthetic biology, there is a demand for advanced technologies for their controlled construction, with microfluidic methods at the forefront of these developments. Compared to conventional bulk methods, emerging microfluidic methods offer advantages such as precise size control, increased production throughput, high encapsulation efficiency, user-defined membrane properties (i.e., lipid composition, vesicular architecture, compartmentalisation, membrane asymmetry, etc.), and potential integration with lab-on-chip manipulation and analysis modules. We provide a review of microfluidic lipid vesicle generation technologies, focusing on recent advances and state-of-the-art techniques. Principal technologies are described, and key research milestones are highlighted. The advantages and limitations of each approach are evaluated, and challenges and opportunities for microfluidic engineering of lipid vesicles to underpin a new generation of therapeutics, vaccines, sensors, and bio-inspired technologies are presented.

A Practical Guide to Preparation and Applications of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles Formed via Centrifugation of Water-in-Oil Emulsion Droplets

Giant vesicles (GVs), which are closed lipid bilayer membranes with a diameter of more than 1 μm, have attracted attention not only as model cell membranes but also for the construction of artificial cells. For encapsulating water-soluble materials and/or water-dispersible particles or functionalizing membrane proteins and/or other synthesized amphiphiles, giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) have been applied in various fields, such as supramolecular chemistry, soft matter physics, life sciences, and bioengineering. In this review, we focus on a preparation technique for GUVs that encapsulate water-soluble materials and/or water-dispersible particles. It is based on the centrifugation of a water-in-oil emulsion layered on water and does not require special equipment other than a centrifuge, which makes it the first choice for laboratory use. Furthermore, we review recent studies on GUV-based artificial cells prepared using this technique and discuss their future applications.

Biomolecular Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation for Biotechnology

The liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of biomolecules induces condensed assemblies called liquid droplets or membrane-less organelles. In contrast to organelles with lipid membrane barriers, the liquid droplets induced by LLPS do not have distinct barriers (lipid bilayer). Biomolecular LLPS in cells has attracted considerable attention in broad research fields from cellular biology to soft matter physics. The physical and chemical properties of LLPS exert a variety of functions in living cells: activating and deactivating biomolecules involving enzymes; controlling the localization, condensation, and concentration of biomolecules; the filtration and purification of biomolecules; and sensing environmental factors for fast, adaptive, and reversible responses. The versatility of LLPS plays an essential role in various biological processes, such as controlling the central dogma and the onset mechanism of pathological diseases. Moreover, biomolecular LLPS could be critical for developing new biotechnologies such as the condensation, purification, and activation of a series of biomolecules. In this review article, we introduce some fundamental aspects and recent progress of biomolecular LLPS in living cells and test tubes. Then, we discuss applications of biomolecular LLPS toward biotechnologies.

Role of Polymers in Microfluidic Devices

Polymers are sustainable and renewable materials that are in high demand due to their excellent properties. Natural and synthetic polymers with high flexibility, good biocompatibility, good degradation rate, and stiffness are widely used for various applications, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and microfluidic chip fabrication. Indeed, recent advances in microfluidic technology allow the fabrication of polymeric matrix to construct microfluidic scaffolds for tissue engineering and to set up a well-controlled microenvironment for manipulating fluids and particles. In this review, polymers as materials for the fabrication of microfluidic chips have been highlighted. Successful models exploiting polymers in microfluidic devices to generate uniform particles as drug vehicles or artificial cells have been also discussed. Additionally, using polymers as bioink for 3D printing or as a matrix to functionalize the sensing surface in microfluidic devices has also been mentioned. The rapid progress made in the combination of polymers and microfluidics presents a low-cost, reproducible, and scalable approach for a promising future in the manufacturing of biomimetic scaffolds for tissue engineering.

Chip assisted formation of phase-separated liposomes for reconstituting spatial protein-lipid interactions

Spatially organized molecular interactions are fundamental features underlying many biochemical processes in cells. These spatially defined reactions are essential to ensure high signaling specificity and are indispensable for maintaining cell functions. The construction of synthetic cell models that can resemble such properties is thus important yet less investigated. In this study, we present a reliable method for the rapid production of highly uniform phase-separated liposomes as synthetic cell models. Specifically, a microfluidics-based strategy coupled with custom reagents for generating size-tunable liposomes with various lipid compositions is presented. In addition, an important cell signaling interacting pair, the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain and PIP₂ lipid, is used to demonstrate the controlled molecular assembly inside these liposomes. The result shows that PIP₂ on phase-separated domains successfully recruits the PH domains to realize spatially defined molecular interactions. Such a system is versatile and can be expanded to synthesize other proteins for realizing multiplexed molecular interactions in the same liposome. Phase-separated lipid domains can also be used to recruit targeted proteins to initiate localized reactions, thus paving the way for organizing a complex signaling cascade in the synthetic cell.

Identifying and Manipulating Giant Vesicles: Review of Recent Approaches

Giant vesicles (GVs) are closed bilayer membranes that primarily comprise amphiphiles with diameters of more than 1 μm. Compared with regular vesicles (several tens of nanometers in size), GVs are of greater scientific interest as model cell membranes and protocells because of their structure and size, which are similar to those of biological systems. Biopolymers and nano-/microparticles can be encapsulated in GVs at high concentrations, and their application as artificial cell bodies has piqued interest. It is essential to develop methods for investigating and manipulating the properties of GVs toward engineering applications. In this review, we discuss current improvements in microscopy, micromanipulation, and microfabrication technologies for progress in GV identification and engineering tools. Combined with the advancement of GV preparation technologies, these technological advancements can aid the development of artificial cell systems such as alternative tissues and GV-based chemical signal processing systems.

Capsule-like DNA Hydrogels with Patterns Formed by Lateral Phase Separation of DNA Nanostructures

Phase separation is a key phenomenon in artificial cell construction. Recent studies have shown that the liquid-liquid phase separation of designed-DNA nanostructures induces the formation of liquid-like condensates that eventually become hydrogels by lowering the solution temperature. As a compartmental capsule is an essential artificial cell structure, many studies have focused on the lateral phase separation of artificial lipid vesicles. However, controlling phase separation using a molecular design approach remains challenging. Here, we present the lateral liquid-liquid phase separation of DNA nanostructures that leads to the formation of phase-separated capsule-like hydrogels. We designed three types of DNA nanostructures (two orthogonal and a linker nanostructure) that were adsorbed onto an interface of water-in-oil (W/O) droplets via electrostatic interactions. The phase separation of DNA nanostructures led to the formation of hydrogels with bicontinuous, patch, and mix patterns, due to the immiscibility of liquid-like DNA during the self-assembly process. The frequency of appearance of these patterns was altered by designing DNA sequences and altering the mixing ratio of the nanostructures. We constructed a phase diagram for the capsule-like DNA hydrogels by investigating pattern formation under various conditions. The phase-separated DNA hydrogels did not only form on the W/O droplet interface but also on the inner leaflet of lipid vesicles. Notably, the capsule-like hydrogels were extracted into an aqueous solution, maintaining the patterns formed by the lateral phase separation. In addition, the extracted hydrogels were successfully combined with enzymatic reactions, which induced their degradation. Our results provide a method for the design and control of phase-separated hydrogel capsules using sequence-designed DNAs. We envision that by incorporating various DNA nanodevices into DNA hydrogel capsules, the capsules will gain molecular sensing, chemical-information processing, and mechanochemical actuating functions, allowing the construction of functional molecular systems.

Novel glass capillary microfluidic devices for the flexible and simple production of multi-cored double emulsions

HYPOTHESIS

Double emulsions with many monodispersed internal droplets are required for the fabrication of multicompartment microcapsules and tissue-like synthetic materials. These double emulsions can also help to optically resolve different coalescence mechanisms contributing to double emulsion destabilization. Up to date microfluidic double emulsions are limited to either core-shell droplets or droplets with eight or less inner droplets. By applying a two-step jet break-up within one setup, double emulsion droplets filled with up to several hundred monodispersed inner droplets can be achieved.

EXPERIMENTS

Modular interconnected CNC-milled Lego®-inspired blocks were used to create two separated droplet break-up points within coaxial glass capillaries. Inner droplets were formed by countercurrent flow focusing within a small inner capillary, while outer droplets were formed by co-flow in an outer capillary. The size of inner and outer droplets was independently controlled since the two droplet break-up processes were decoupled.

FINDINGS

With the developed setup W/O/W and O/W/O double emulsions were produced with different surfactants, oils, and viscosity modifiers to encapsulate 25-400 inner droplets in each outer drop with a volume percentage of inner phase between 7% and 50%. From these emulsions monodispersed multicompartment microcapsules were obtained. The report offers insights on the relationship between the coalescence of internal droplets and their release.

Fabrication of Lipid Nanotubules by Ultrasonic Drag Force

This work reports a new method of fabricating lipid nanotubules using ultrasonic Stokes drag force in theory and experiment. Ultrasonic Stokes drag force generated using a planar piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer in a remotely controllable way is introduced. When ultrasonic Stokes drag force is applied on lipid vesicles, the lipid nanotubules attached can be dragged out from the lipid film. In order to demonstrate the formation mechanism of the lipid nanotubules produced by ultrasonic drag force clearly, a theoretical kinetic model is developed. In the experiments, the lipid nanotubules can be rapidly and efficiently fabricated using this ultrasonic transducer both in deionized water and NaCl solutions with different concentrations. The stretching speed of the lipid nanotubules can reach 33 μm/s, approximately 10 times faster than that of the existing methods. The formed lipid nanotubules have a diameter of 600 ± 100 nm (>80%). The length can reach the millimeter level. This work provided a remotely controllable, highly efficient, high-velocity, and solution environment-independent approach for fabricating lipid nanotubules.

Droplet Microfluidics for Tumor Drug-Related Studies and Programmable Artificial Cells

Anticancer drug development is a crucial step toward cancer treatment, that requires realistic predictions of malignant tissue development and sophisticated drug delivery. Tumors often acquire drug resistance and drug efficacy, hence cannot be accurately predicted in 2D tumor cell cultures. On the other hand, 3D cultures, including multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTSs), mimic the in vivo cellular arrangement and provide robust platforms for drug testing when grown in hydrogels with characteristics similar to the living body. Microparticles and liposomes are considered smart drug delivery vehicles, are able to target cancerous tissue, and can release entrapped drugs on demand. Microfluidics serve as a high-throughput tool for reproducible, flexible, and automated production of droplet-based microscale constructs, tailored to the desired final application. In this review, it is described how natural hydrogels in combination with droplet microfluidics can generate MCTSs, and the use of microfluidics to produce tumor targeting microparticles and liposomes. One of the highlights of the review documents the use of the bottom-up construction methodologies of synthetic biology for the formation of artificial cellular assemblies, which may additionally incorporate both target cancer cells and prospective drug candidates, as an integrated "droplet incubator" drug assay platform.

DNA nanotechnology provides an avenue for the construction of programmable dynamic molecular systems

Self-assembled supramolecular structures in living cells and their dynamics underlie various cellular events, such as endocytosis, cell migration, intracellular transport, cell metabolism, and gene expression. Spatiotemporally regulated association/dissociation and generation/degradation of assembly components is one of the remarkable features of biological systems. The significant advancement in DNA nanotechnology over the last few decades has enabled the construction of various-shaped nanostructures via programmed self-assembly of sequence-designed oligonucleotides. These nanostructures can further be assembled into micrometer-sized structures, including ordered lattices, tubular structures, macromolecular droplets, and hydrogels. In addition to being a structural material, DNA is adopted to construct artificial molecular circuits capable of activating/inactivating or producing/decomposing target DNA molecules based on strand displacement or enzymatic reactions. In this review, we provide an overview of recent studies on artificially designed DNA-based self-assembled systems that exhibit dynamic features, such as association/dis-sociation of components, phase separation, stimulus responsivity, and DNA circuit-regulated structural formation. These biomacromolecule-based, bottom-up approaches for the construction of artificial molecular systems will not only throw light on bio-inspired nano/micro engineering, but also enable us to gain insights into how autonomy and adaptability of living systems can be realized.

Reconstitution of contractile actomyosin rings in vesicles

One of the grand challenges of bottom-up synthetic biology is the development of minimal machineries for cell division. The mechanical transformation of large-scale compartments, such as Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs), requires the geometry-specific coordination of active elements, several orders of magnitude larger than the molecular scale. Of all cytoskeletal structures, large-scale actomyosin rings appear to be the most promising cellular elements to accomplish this task. Here, we have adopted advanced encapsulation methods to study bundled actin filaments in GUVs and compare our results with theoretical modeling. By changing few key parameters, actin polymerization can be differentiated to resemble various types of networks in living cells. Importantly, we find membrane binding to be crucial for the robust condensation into a single actin ring in spherical vesicles, as predicted by theoretical considerations. Upon force generation by ATP-driven myosin motors, these ring-like actin structures contract and locally constrict the vesicle, forming furrow-like deformations. On the other hand, cortex-like actin networks are shown to induce and stabilize deformations from spherical shapes.

Cytoskeletal networks support and direct cell shape and guide intercellular transport, but relatively little is understood about the self-organization of cytoskeletal components on the scale of an entire cell. Here, authors use an in vitro system and observe the assembly of different types of actin networks and the condensation of membrane-bound actin into single rings.

Recent developments in microfluidic synthesis of artificial cell-like polymersomes and liposomes for functional bioreactors

Recent advances in droplet microfluidics have led to the fabrication of versatile vesicles with a structure that mimics the cellular membrane. These artificial cell-like vesicles including polymersomes and liposomes effectively enclose an aqueous core with well-defined size and composition from the surrounding environment to implement various biological reactions, serving as a diverse functional reactor. The advantage of realizing various biological phenomena within a compartment separated by a membrane that resembles a natural cell membrane is actively explored in the fields of synthetic biology as well as biomedical applications including drug delivery, biosensors, and bioreactors, to name a few. In this Perspective, we first summarize various methods utilized in producing these polymersomes and liposomes. Moreover, we will highlight some of the recent advances in the design of these artificial cell-like vesicles for functional bioreactors and discuss the current issues and future perspectives.

Bioluminescent detection of isothermal DNA amplification in microfluidic generated droplets and artificial cells

Microfluidic droplet generation affords precise, low volume, high throughput opportunities for molecular diagnostics. Isothermal DNA amplification with bioluminescent detection is a fast, low-cost, highly specific molecular diagnostic technique that is triggerable by temperature. Combining loop-mediated isothermal nucleic acid amplification (LAMP) and bioluminescent assay in real time (BART), with droplet microfluidics, should enable high-throughput, low copy, sequence-specific DNA detection by simple light emission. Stable, uniform LAMP–BART droplets are generated with low cost equipment. The composition and scale of these droplets are controllable and the bioluminescent output during DNA amplification can be imaged and quantified. Furthermore these droplets are readily incorporated into encapsulated droplet interface bilayers (eDIBs), or artificial cells, and the bioluminescence tracked in real time for accurate quantification off chip. Microfluidic LAMP–BART droplets with high stability and uniformity of scale coupled with high throughput and low cost generation are suited to digital DNA quantification at low template concentrations and volumes, where multiple measurement partitions are required. The triggerable reaction in the core of eDIBs can be used to study the interrelationship of the droplets with the environment and also used for more complex chemical processing via a self-contained network of droplets, paving the way for smart soft-matter diagnostics.

Compartmentalizing Cell-Free Systems: Toward Creating Life-Like Artificial Cells and Beyond

Building an artificial cell is a research area that is rigorously studied in the field of synthetic biology. It has brought about much attention with the aim of ultimately constructing a natural cell-like structure. In particular, with the more mature cell-free platforms and various compartmentalization methods becoming available, achieving this aim seems not far away. In this review, we discuss the various types of artificial cells capable of hosting several cellular functions. Different compartmental boundaries and the mature and evolving technologies that are used for compartmentalization are examined, and exciting recent advances that overcome or have the potential to address current challenges are discussed. Ultimately, we show how compartmentalization and cell-free systems have, and will, come together to fulfill the goal to assemble a fully synthetic cell that displays functionality and complexity as advanced as that in nature. The development of such artificial cell systems will offer insight into the fundamental study of evolutionary biology and the sea of applications as a result. Although several challenges remain, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence also appear to help pave the way to address them and achieve the ultimate goal.

Artificial Cells Based on DNA Nanotechnology

Artificial cells have led to many potential applications in synthetic biology and served as useful platforms to study biological phenomena. With increasing development of DNA nanotechnology, DNA-based nanostructures with various morphologies have been constructed for protein mimicking. These biomimicking elements can be assembled on cell membrane involved in various cellular activities, as well as be constructed as signaling networks inside cells. DNA nanotechnology provides an efficient approach to accomplish multiple functions, including signal recognition, transduction, and output. Here, we review a myriad of predominant studies on the construction of artificial cells based on DNA nanotechnology, including the morphological and functional mimic of membrane proteins, biosensors for monitoring the cellular microenvironment, and construction of DNA-based signal feedback networks. We also provide a comprehensive insight into DNA-based artificial cells, on the basis of current challenges and scientific requirements, which will prompt their reasonable designs in the future.

On-Chip Inverted Emulsion Method for Fast Giant Vesicle Production, Handling, and Analysis

Liposomes and giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) in particular are excellent compartments for constructing artificial cells. Traditionally, their use requires bench-top vesicle growth, followed by experimentation under a microscope. Such steps are time-consuming and can lead to loss of vesicles when they are transferred to an observation chamber. To overcome these issues, we present an integrated microfluidic chip which combines GUV formation, trapping, and multiple separate experiments in the same device. First, we optimized the buffer conditions to maximize both the yield and the subsequent trapping of the vesicles in micro-posts. Captured GUVs were monodisperse with specific size of 18 ± 4 µm in diameter. Next, we introduce a two-layer design with integrated valves which allows fast solution exchange in less than 20 s and on separate sub-populations of the trapped vesicles. We demonstrate that multiple experiments can be performed in a single chip with both membrane transport and permeabilization assays. In conclusion, we have developed a versatile all-in-one microfluidic chip with capabilities to produce and perform multiple experiments on a single batch of vesicles using low sample volumes. We expect this device will be highly advantageous for bottom-up synthetic biology where rapid encapsulation and visualization is required for enzymatic reactions.

Photolithographic shape control of DNA hydrogels by photo-activated self-assembly of DNA nanostructures

We report a photolithographic method for the shape control of DNA hydrogels based on photo-activated self-assembly of Y-shaped DNA nanostructures (Y-motifs). To date, various methods to control the shape of DNA hydrogels have been developed to enhance the functions of the DNA hydrogel system. However, photolithographic production of shape-controlled DNA hydrogels formed through the self-assembly of DNA nanostructures without the use of radical polymerizations has never been demonstrated, although such a method is expected to be applied for the shape-control of DNA hydrogels encapsulating sensitive biomolecules, such as proteins. In this study, we used a photo-activated linker to initiate the self-assembly of Y-motifs, where the cross-linker DNA was at first inactive but was activated after UV light irradiation, resulting in the formation of shape-controlled DNA hydrogels only at the UV-exposed area produced by photomasks. We believe that this method will be applied for the construction of biohybrid machines, such as molecular robots and artificial cells that contain intelligent biomolecular devices, such as molecular sensors and computers.

Microfluidics for Biosynthesizing: from Droplets and Vesicles to Artificial Cells

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.

New opportunities for creating man-made bioarchitectures utilizing microfluidics

Cells are the basic units of life, and can be mimicked to create artificial analogs enabling the investigation of cellular mechanisms under controlled conditions. Building biomimetic systems ranging from proto-cells to cell-like objects such as compartment membranes can be achieved by collecting biobricks that self-assemble to build simplified models performing specific functions. Hence, scientists can develop and optimize new synthetic cells with biological functions by taking inspiration from nature and exploiting the advantages of synthetic biology. However, the bottom-down approach is not restricted to the basic principles of biological cells, and new mimicry systems can be designed starting with a combination of living and non-living simple molecules to focus on a cellular machinery function. In recent years, microfluidic devices have been well established to engineer bioarchitecture models resembling cell-like structures involving vesicles, compartmentalization, synthetic membranes, and the chip itself as a synthetic cell. This review aims to highlight the role of biological cells and their impact on inspiring the development of biomimetic models. The combination of the principles of synthetic biology with microfluidic technology represents the newly-introduced field of synthetic cells and synthetic membranes that can be further exploited in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.