Search results for "Artificial Cells"

Signal-Processing and Adaptive Prototissue Formation in Metabolic DNA Protocells

2021

Abstract The fundamental life-defining processes in living cells, such as replication, division, adaptation, and tissue formation, take place via intertwined metabolic reaction networks orchestrating downstream signal processing in a confined, crowded environment with high precision. Hence, it is crucial to understand and reenact some of these functions in wholly synthetic cell-like entities (protocells) to envision designing soft-materials with life-like traits. Herein, we report on a programmable all-DNA protocell (PC) composed of a liquid DNA interior and a hydrogel-like shell, harboring DNAzyme active sites in the interior whose catalytic bond-cleaving activity leads to a downstream phe…