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Lee KG, Hong J, Wang KW, Heo NS, Kim do H, Lee SY, Lee SJ, Park TJ.
ACS Nano. 2012 Aug 28;6(8):6998-7008.
Center for Nanobio Integration & Convergence Engineering, National Nanofab Center, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-806, Korea.
Abstract
We report the use of a hydrogel polymer, recombinant Escherichia coli cell extracts, and a microdroplet-based microfluidic device to fabricate artificial cellular bioreactors which act as reactors to synthesize diverse metal nanoparticles (NPs). The combination of cell extracts, microdroplet-based microfluidic device, and hydrogel was able to produce a mass amount of artificial cellular bioreactors with uniform size and shape. For the first time, we report the alternating generation of microdroplets through one orifice for the fabrication of the artificial cellular reactors using the cell extract as inner cellular components and hydrogel as an artificial cellular membrane. Notably, the hydrogels were able to protect the encapsulated cell extracts from the surrounding environment and maintain the functionality of cellular component for the further cellular bioreactor applications. Furthermore, the successful applications of the fabricated artificial cellular bioreactors to synthesize various NPs including quantum dots, iron, and gold was demonstrated. By employing this microfluidic technique, the artificial cellular bioreactors could be applicable for the synthesis of diverse metal NPs through simple dipping of the reactors to the metal precursor solutions. Thus, the different size of NPs can be synthesized through controlling the concentration of metal precursors. This artificial cellular bioreactors offer promising abilities to biofriendly ways to synthesis diverse NPs and can be applicable in chemical, biomedical, and bioengineering applications.
Additional Information:
The on-chip-synthesized artificial cellular bioreactor system effectively functions as an individual chemical reactor to synthesize different types of metal nanocomposite materials with high biocompatibility, and to preserve the bioactivity. In addition, the microfluidic technique provides a unique condition to produce monodisperse microdroplets with easy control of the concentration of cellular components, in contrast to real living cells. This biomimetics is a powerful method for the biosynthesis of various metal nanoparticles (NPs) with the use of cellular behavior and a metal growing mechanism. Moreover, it is believed that our double-flow focusing method is highly applicable to fabricating artificial cells, thereby enhancing our understanding of the cellular in vivo NPs synthesis mechanisms.
