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A Tedtalk article, "The ongoing quest to build a life from scratch" introduced interesting research about artificial cells. My initial thoughts were how synthetic biologists characterize what compartments should be qualified in an artificial cell and should there be limits to who and what cells can artificial communicate with. In environmental science, synthetic biology would be useful to create biofuels or communicate with cells to absorbing pollutants like carbon dioxide (fossil fuel burning), nitrous oxide (fossil fuel burning), or methane (meat production).
Opinion: Should artificial cells be programmed to communicate with real cells?
By Phung Huynh
March 10, 2021
The simplest definition of cells is defined as the building blocks of living organisms other than atoms because cells organize into tissues then to organs. A more specific definition is cells consist of membrane bound structures and inside the cell is a water based environment known as the cytoplasm that houses the different organelles to perform cell processes. Since cells are the biological foundation of life, there is still a debate about is life, is it a self-replicating system or its ability to persist overtime. This question about what is life evolves the field of synthetic biology to determine what real life cells should be mimicked in artificial cells?
Artificial cells have been of interest since the 1960s. Thomas Chang from the McGill University was the first to synthesize artificial cells from hemoglobin. Chang utilized an emulsion method to insert red blood cells and the red blood cell enzymes to a polymer based membrane. This model served as a basis to mimic a few behaviors in real cells into artificial cells that recent research has been able to replicate more cellular function and test whether or not artificial cells can respond to its environment.
First how do these synthetic cells work? There are two approaches: one is a bottom up approach and the other is a top down approach. In the bottom up approach, it takes non-living components that will then be used to make artificial cells. The lipid membrane must first be formed by using microchips to inject liposomes (Powell 2018) and then insert the cell machinery via picoinjection. Some important cell machinery that may be included can be used to perform metabolism, energy, organization, and storing information. By creating cells via the bottom up approach, scientists are questioning what else is important in a cell, should the cells be autonomous, and more. Meanwhile, in the top down approach, genomes from living organisms are edited and replaced into artificial cells to simplify the cell function (Xu et al 2017).
Microfluidic chip creating liposomes to create the membrane of artificial cells. Credit: Powell 2018
Artificial cells are still in the research process of perfecting the cells to be more cell-like. A research group from Imperial College has been able to find a way to allow artificial cells to sense and respond to the environment (Dunning 2019). In the lab, the artificial cells were created to sense calcium ions which were tagged with a fluorescent protein to detect whether or not the artificial cells successfully adapted to the environment. The artificial cells were able to respond to calcium and the next step in the research is to continue developing the cell pathway because if the cells can respond to the environment, the cell can be programmed to degrade, synthesize, or simply absorb the substance. Artificial cells currently have limited functions, but researchers are also interested in regulating artificial cell communication.
The Mansy lab from the University of Trento found a way for artificial cells to communicate to live cells (Eng 2017). Artificial cells will act as mediators for live cells to communicate with other cells that do not usually communicate with one another. This is innovative because artificial cells can interact with live cells and serve as mediators between cell to cell communication or artificial cells can direct live cells. In Mansy lab, the group discovered their artificial cells are “39% Aliivibrio fischeri like.” The researchers also were testing whether or not the artificial cells can prevent block communication of a pathogen that infects cystic fibrosis patients (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), however the artificial cells were unable to survive in the presence of P. aeruginosa because the artificial cells are not stable structures. Once artificial cells become more robust in the presence of different types of living cells, how should artificial cells be used for?
Artificial cells appear to be promising for medical purposes like drug delivery. NASA is funding artificial cell research to design artificial cells to carry blood and other medications. The cells are made from polymersomes, artificial tiny small spheres that hold solution, have really strong binding can then be easily dehydrated to save space. Artificial cells still have a long way to go and will have interesting applications in drug delivery, biosensing, and more.
Resources
Chang TMS. 2007. 50th Anniversary of Artificial Cells: Their Role in Biotechnology, Nanomedicine, Regenerative Medicine, Blood Substitutes, Bioencapsulation, Cell/Stem Cell Therapy and Nanorobotics. Artif Cells Blood Substit Immobil Biotechnol. 35(6):545–554. doi:10.1080/10731190701730172.
Dunning H. 2019 02. Artificial cells that can sense and respond to their environment. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190729181640.htm.
Eng K. 2017. The ongoing quest to build life from scratch. ideas.ted.com. https://ideas.ted.com/the-ongoing-quest-to-build-life-from-scratch/.
Miller K. NASA - Artificial Cells. https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/livingthings/artifical_cells_sng.html.
Powell K. 2018. How biologists are creating life-like cells from scratch. Nature. 563(7730):172–175. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07289-x.
Xu C, Hu S, Chen X. 2016. Artificial cells: from basic science to applications. Mater Today (Kidlington). 19(9):516–532. doi:10.1016/j.mattod.2016.02.020.
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