Abstract

This talk will outline novel strategies for biomembrane engineering that are capable of fabricating vesicles, multisomes and artificial cells/tissues on demand. These platforms are being used to construct complex multi-compartment artificial cells where the contents and connectivity of each compartment can be controlled. These compartments are separated by biological functional membranes that can facilitate transport between the compartments themselves and between the compartments and external environment. These technologies have enabled us to engineer multi-step enzymatic signalling cascades into the cells leading to in-situ chemical synthesis and systems that are capable of sensing and responding to their environment. The talk will also highlight recent work in our group in the field of cellular bionics where we are manufacturing artificial cell-real cell hybrid systems where the combined ensemble performs user defined functions.