Issue 23, 2021

Programmed assembly of bespoke prototissues on a microfluidic platform

Abstract

The precise assembly of protocell building blocks into prototissues that are stable in water, capable of sensing the external environment and which display collective behaviours remains a considerable challenge in prototissue engineering. We have designed a microfluidic platform that enables us to build bespoke prototissues from predetermined compositions of two types of protein–polymer protocells. We can accurately control their size, composition and create unique Janus configurations in a way that is not possible with traditional methods. Because we can control the number and type of the protocells that compose the prototissue, we can hence modulate the collective behaviours of this biomaterial. We show control over both the amplitude of thermally induced contractions in the biomaterial and its collective endogenous biochemical reactivity. Our results show that microfluidic technologies enable a new route to the precise and high-throughput fabrication of tissue-like materials with programmable collective properties that can be tuned through careful assembly of protocell building blocks of different types. We anticipate that our bespoke prototissues will be a starting point for the development of more sophisticated artificial tissues for use in medicine, soft robotics, and environmentally beneficial bioreactor technologies.

Graphical abstract: Programmed assembly of bespoke prototissues on a microfluidic platform

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 júl 2021
Accepted
18 okt 2021
First published
19 okt 2021

Lab Chip, 2021,21, 4574-4585

Programmed assembly of bespoke prototissues on a microfluidic platform

K. Ramsay, J. Levy, P. Gobbo and K. S. Elvira, Lab Chip, 2021, 21, 4574 DOI: 10.1039/D1LC00602A

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