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Synthetic biology: Phagocytic protocells

Nature Reviews Materials volume 2, Article number: 17041 (2017) Cite this article

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A synthetic colloidal system has been developed that mimics the biological process of phagocytosis — the ingestion of foreign material by certain cell types. As Stephen Mann and colleagues report in Nature Materials, synthetic ‘ecosystems’ such as theirs, which allow the controlled engulfment of small colloidosomes in larger microdroplets, may have applicability in areas ranging from microfluidics to industrial enzymatic processes.

The binary protocell community used to achieve phagocytosis comprises aqueous-filled silica colloidosomes and aqueous-filled magnetically responsive droplets dispersed in oil. The silica colloidosomes were stabilized either by a crosslinked shell of silica nanoparticles or as a Pickering emulsion; the larger magnetically responsive droplets formed through self-assembly of hydrophobic magnetite particles into a water-in-oil Pickering emulsion (that is, water microdroplets stabilized in the bulk oil phase by a shell of fatty-acid-capped magnetite particles). Left alone, the two populations in the mixture do not interact. However, by reducing the surface tension or by applying a magnetic field, the authors were able to bring about the engulfment of the silica colloidosomes. “This was achieved via microscale apertures in the magnetic shell, which were generated spontaneously by addition of a fatty acid to the self-assembled structure. As a consequence, we demonstrate phagocytosis-like behaviour in combination with non-equilibrium movement of the colloids and internal mixing due to Marangoni instabilities,” explains Mann.

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References

  1. Rodríguez-Arco, L., Li, M. and Mann, S. Phagocytosis-inspired behaviour in synthetic protocell communities of compartmentalized colloidal objects. Nat. Mater.http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat4916 (2017)

  2. Qiao, Y., Li, M., Booth, R. and Mann, S. Predatory behaviour in synthetic protocell communities. Nat. Chem. 9, 110–119 (2017)

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  1. Adam Brotchie
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Brotchie, A. Synthetic biology: Phagocytic protocells. Nat Rev Mater 2, 17041 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.41

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.41

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