Autonomous molecularly crowded confinement in inkjet printed femtoliter-scale aqueous compartments

Natural evolution has chosen the localization of biomolecular processes into crowded sub-cellular femtoliter (fL) scale compartments for organizing complex biological processes. [1] Many synthetic biology platforms with life-like activities have been able to mimic these systems under different compartment sizes regimes. [2] However, the fabrication of crowded compartments down to sub-cellular scales is challenging, mainly because of high surface-volume ratio of these systems, finally compromising the stability of the encapsulated biomolecules. In this regard, we here bridge this gap by showing the possibility to produce femtoliter-scale aqueous droplets using a novel inkjet printing approac…

Printing Life-Inspired Subcellular Scale Compartments with Autonomous Molecularly Crowded Confinement.

A simple, rapid, and highly controlled platform to prepare life-inspired subcellular scale compartments by inkjet printing has been developed. These compartments consist of fL-scale aqueous droplets (few µm in diameter) incorporating biologically relevant molecular entities with programmed composition and concentration. These droplets are ink-jetted in nL mineral oil drop arrays allowing for lab-on-chip studies by fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence life time imaging. Once formed, fL-droplets are stable for several hours, thus giving the possibility of readily analyze molecular reactions and their kinetics and to verify molecular behavior and intermolecular interactions. Here, this pla…

Sub-Cellular Scale Compartments: Printing Life-Inspired Subcellular Scale Compartments with Autonomous Molecularly Crowded Confinement (Adv. Biosys. 7/2019)