title: Droplet-microfluidics towards the assembly of advanced building blocks in cell mimicry.
abstract: Therapeutic cell mimicry is an approach in nanomedicine aiming at substituting for missing or lost cellular functions employing nature-inspired concepts. Pioneered decades ago, only now is this technology empowered with the arsenal of nanotechnological tools and ready to provide radically new solutions such as assembling synthetic organelles and artificial cells. One of these tools is droplet microfluidics (D-μF), which provides the flexibility to generate cargo-loaded particles with tunable size and shape in a fast and reliable manner, an essential requirement in cell mimicry. This minireview aims at outlining the developments in D-μF from the past four years focusing on the assembly of nanoparticles, Janus-shaped and other non-spherical particles as well as their loading with biological payloads.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. bstadler@inano.au.dk and Instituto de Farmacologia e Neurociências, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal and Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Armada-Moreira
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. bstadler@inano.au.dk.
authors.forename: Essi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Taipaleenmäki
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. bstadler@inano.au.dk.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Itel
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. bstadler@inano.au.dk.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. bstadler@inano.au.dk.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Städler
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics; D044085:Microfluidics; D050997:Nanomedicine; D053758:Nanoparticles