Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

DrLorenzoDi Michele

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry

Honorary Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3262l.di-michele Website

 
 
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Location

 

Molecular Sciences Research HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Malouf:2023:10.1016/j.chempr.2023.10.004,
author = {Malouf, L and Tanase, DA and Fabrini, G and Brady, RA and Paez-Perez, M and Leathers, A and Booth, MJ and Di, Michele L},
doi = {10.1016/j.chempr.2023.10.004},
journal = {Chem},
pages = {3347--3364},
title = {Sculpting DNA-based synthetic cells through phase separation and phase-targeted activity},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2023.10.004},
volume = {9},
year = {2023}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Synthetic cells, like their biological counterparts, require internal compartments with distinct chemical and physical properties where different functionalities can be localized. Inspired by membrane-less compartmentalization in biological cells, here, we demonstrate how microphase separation can be used to engineer heterogeneous cell-like architectures with programmable morphology and compartment-targeted activity. The synthetic cells self-assemble from amphiphilic DNA nanostructures, producing core-shell condensates due to size-induced de-mixing. Lipid deposition and phase-selective etching are then used to generate a porous pseudo-membrane, a cytoplasm analog, and membrane-less organelles. The synthetic cells can sustain RNA synthesis via in vitro transcription, leading to cytoplasm and pseudo-membrane expansion caused by an accumulation of the transcript. Our approach exemplifies how architectural and functional complexity can emerge from a limited number of distinct building blocks, if molecular-scale programmability, emergent biophysical phenomena, and biochemical activity are coupled to mimic those observed in live cells.
AU  - Malouf,L
AU  - Tanase,DA
AU  - Fabrini,G
AU  - Brady,RA
AU  - Paez-Perez,M
AU  - Leathers,A
AU  - Booth,MJ
AU  - Di,Michele L
DO  - 10.1016/j.chempr.2023.10.004
EP  - 3364
PY  - 2023///
SN  - 2451-9308
SP  - 3347
TI  - Sculpting DNA-based synthetic cells through phase separation and phase-targeted activity
T2  - Chem
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2023.10.004
VL  - 9
ER  -
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