Chemical Communication at the Synthetic Cell/living Cell Interface

Overview

Journal Commun Chem

Publisher Springer Nature

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2023 Jan 25

PMID 36697795

Authors

Vincent Mukwaya

Stephen Mann

Hongjing Dou

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although the complexity of synthetic cells has continued to increase in recent years, chemical communication between protocell models and living organisms remains a key challenge in bottom-up synthetic biology and bioengineering. In this Review, we discuss how communication channels and modes of signal processing can be established between living cells and cytomimetic agents such as giant unilamellar lipid vesicles, proteinosomes, polysaccharidosomes, polymer-based giant vesicles and membrane-less coacervate micro-droplets. We describe three potential modes of chemical communication in consortia of synthetic and living cells based on mechanisms of distributed communication and signal processing, physical embodiment and nested communication, and network-based contact-dependent communication. We survey the potential for applying synthetic cell/living cell communication systems in biomedicine, including the in situ production of therapeutics and development of new bioreactors. Finally, we present a short summary of our findings.

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