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Materials science

Embedded shells decalcified

Nature volume 448, pages 879–880 (2007)Cite this article

Synthetic microcapsules with membrane-bound inner chambers in which chemical reactions can be isolated and controlled have been assembled, layer by layer. Could artificial cells be on the horizon?

The next time you eat an apple, take a moment to consider its hierarchical structure. The thin, durable skin wraps around the delectable fruit, in which can be found seeds; those seeds, in turn, have a coating of their own to encase their contents. Animal cells possess a similar arrangement of embedded compartments: cell membranes confine the machinery of life, including the nuclei with their membrane-ensconced genomes. Both cell and nuclear membranes self-assemble from lipid molecules, and are fortified with networks of proteins whose structures are templated by interactions with the membranes. The hierarchical assembly of a synthetic, cell-like structure has now been described in Angewandte Chemie by Kreft et al.1. They have used microspheres of calcium carbonate as templates to construct polymeric, shell-within-shell capsules. Once the structures are assembled, the templates are simply washed away.

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Figure 1: Polymer shells within shells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catherine Picart is at the Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, CEDEX 5, 34095, France.,

    Catherine Picart

  2. Dennis E. Discher is in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. discher@seas.upenn.edu,

    Dennis E. Discher

Authors
  1. Catherine Picart
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  2. Dennis E. Discher
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Picart, C., Discher, D. Embedded shells decalcified. Nature 448, 879–880 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448879a

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