title: Towards self-assembled hybrid artificial cells: novel bottom-up approaches to functional synthetic membranes.
abstract: There has been increasing interest in utilizing bottom-up approaches to develop synthetic cells. A popular methodology is the integration of functionalized synthetic membranes with biological systems, producing "hybrid" artificial cells. This Concept article covers recent advances and the current state-of-the-art of such hybrid systems. Specifically, we describe minimal supramolecular constructs that faithfully mimic the structure and/or function of living cells, often by controlling the assembly of highly ordered membrane architectures with defined functionality. These studies give us a deeper understanding of the nature of living systems, bring new insights into the origin of cellular life, and provide novel synthetic chassis for advancing synthetic biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Building: Urey Hall 4120, La Jolla, CA 92093 (USA), Fax: (+1) 858-534-9503 Homepage: http://devarajgroup.ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Roberto J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Brea
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Building: Urey Hall 4120, La Jolla, CA 92093 (USA), Fax: (+1) 858-534-9503 Homepage: http://devarajgroup.ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Building: Urey Hall 4120, La Jolla, CA 92093 (USA), Fax: (+1) 858-534-9503 Homepage: http://devarajgroup.ucsd.edu. ndevaraj@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Neal K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Devaraj
mesh_terms: D058045:Artificial Cells / Q000737:chemistry*; D001686:Biological Phenomena; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000639:trends*; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry*; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000639:trends*
keywords: artificial cell; drug delivery; polymersome; synthetic biology; vesicles