Engineering supported membranes for cell biology

Engineering Artificial Cell Membranes

Growth and division are essential biological processes of cellular life. A crucial question concerning the origin of cellular life is how primitive cells (protocells) lacking complex biological machinery could grow and divide. To address this question, we first developed an effective method for preparing large monodisperse (uniform-sized) vesicles through a combination of extrusion and large-po...

Cell adhesion to protein-micropatterned-supported lipid bilayer membranes.

A new method for constructing controlled interfaces between cells and synthetic supported lipid bilayer membranes is reported. Microcontact printing is used to define squares and grid lines of fibronectin onto glass, which subsequently direct the self-assembly of fluid lipid bilayers onto the complementary, uncoated regions of the surface. Features of fibronectin as small as 5 microm effectivel...

Supported Dense Ceramic Membranes for Oxygen Separation

Cell-free synthetic biology for in vitro prototype engineering

Cell-free transcription-translation is an expanding field in synthetic biology as a rapid prototyping platform for blueprinting the design of synthetic biological devices. Exemplar efforts include translation of prototype designs into medical test kits for on-site identification of viruses (Zika and Ebola), while gene circuit cascades can be tested, debugged and re-designed within rapid turnove...

Supported liquid membranes : instability effects

The instability behaviour of several supported liquid membranes (SLMs) has been studied for a system in which nitrate ions are removed from an aqueous feed phase and concentrated in a stripping phase. The composition of the aqueous phases and of the membrane liquid has been determined after the aqueous phases had flowed parallel to the membranes for a period of six days. From the experimental d...