Mechanically activated artificial cell by using microfluidics.
All living organisms sense mechanical forces. Engineering mechanosensitive artificial cell through bottom-up in vitro reconstitution offers a way to understand how mixtures of macromolecules assemble and organize into a complex system that responds to forces. We use stable double emulsion droplets (aqueous/oil/aqueous) to prototype mechanosensitive artificial cells. In order to demonstrate mechanosensation in artificial cells, we develop a novel microfluidic device that is capable of trapping double emulsions into designated chambers, followed by compression and aspiration in a parallel manner. The microfluidic device is fabricated using multilayer soft lithography technology, and consists of a control layer and a deformable flow channel. Deflections of the PDMS membrane above the main microfluidic flow channels and trapping chamber array are independently regulated pneumatically by two sets of integrated microfluidic valves. We successfully compress and aspirate the double emulsions, which result in transient increase and permanent decrease in oil thickness, respectively. Finally, we demonstrate the influx of calcium ions as a response of our mechanically activated artificial cell through thinning of oil. The development of a microfluidic device to mechanically activate artificial cells creates new opportunities in force-activated synthetic biology.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Kenneth K Y
KK
Ho
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Lap Man
LM
Lee
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.|Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.|Biophysics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Allen P
AP
Liu
D058045:Artificial Cells; D004655:Emulsions; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods
D004655:Emulsions