Engineering motile aqueous phase-separated droplets
via liposome stabilisation
via liposome stabilisation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There are increasing efforts to engineer functional compartments that mimic cellular behaviours from the bottom-up. One behaviour that is receiving particular attention is motility, due to its biotechnological potential and ubiquity in living systems. Many existing platforms make use of the Marangoni effect to achieve motion in water/oil (w/o) droplet systems. However, most of these systems are unsuitable for biological applications due to biocompatibility issues caused by the presence of oil phases. Here we report a biocompatible all aqueous (w/w) PEG/dextran Pickering-like emulsion system consisting of liposome-stabilised cell-sized droplets, where the stability can be easily tuned by adjusting liposome composition and concentration. We demonstrate that the compartments are capable of negative chemotaxis: these droplets can respond to a PEG/dextran polymer gradient through directional motion down to the gradient. The biocompatibility, motility and partitioning abilities of this droplet system offers new directions to pursue research in motion-related biological processes.
Date Issued
2021-03-15
Date Acceptance
2021-01-26
Citation
Nature Communications, 2021, 12, pp.1-11
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
12
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
China Scholarship Council
Medical Research Council
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21832-x
Grant Number
MR/S031537/1
n/a
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Chemotaxis
Dextrans
Emulsions
Liposomes
Motion
Particle Size
Polyethylene Glycols
Water
Water
Polyethylene Glycols
Dextrans
Liposomes
Emulsions
Chemotaxis
Particle Size
Motion
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1673
Date Publish Online
2021-03-15