19-BBSRC-NSF/BIO

该合作项目的目标是利用Vollmer实验室（英国埃克塞特大学）开发的尖端传感器技术，将我们对活细胞中膜蛋白功能的基本理解应用于Noireaux实验室（美国明尼苏达大学）开发的基因编程合成细胞。模仿特定生物功能的自下而上合成细胞的构建，有望成为解决与人类健康和环境有关的社会问题的潜在解决方案。虽然工程功能最小的细胞可以在不久的将来实现，但合成细胞的基本方法也需要扩大我们的工程能力。当前最先进技术的一个严重限制是缺乏关于如何开发和表征具有活性膜功能的合成细胞的基本知识。将膜功能整合到合成细胞中需要对膜-蛋白相互作用和动力学的基本方面有定量的了解。当使用非侵入性技术直接在最小的细胞设置中进行分析时，该分析是最佳的，其中膜蛋白动态合成并功能插入脂质双分子层，如本项目所建议的那样。通过将最先进的单分子可视化技术放置在动态活性合成细胞旁边，这项合作将研究大自然如何组装由蛋白质组成的分子纳米机器。这些纳米机器在生命系统中起着重要的作用，比如催化作用、细胞信号传导，它们赋予细胞形状和结构。

The goal of this collaborative project is to advance our fundamental understanding of membrane protein functions in live cells using a cutting-edge sensor technology developed in Vollmer's lab (Exeter University, UK) applied to genetically programmed synthetic cells developed in the Noireaux' lab (University of Minnesota, USA). The bottom-up construction of synthetic cells that emulate specific biological functions holds strong promises as potential solutions to societal problems related to human health and the environment. While engineering functional minimal cells could be achieved in the near future, fundamental approaches to synthetic cells are also needed to expand our engineering capabilities. A serious limitation in the current state-of-the-art is the lack of basic knowledge of how synthetic cells with active membrane functions can be robustly developed and characterized. Integrating membrane functions into synthetic cells requires a quantitative understanding of basic aspects of membrane-protein interactions and dynamics. This analysis is optimal when it is performed with non-invasive techniques directly in a minimal cell setting where membrane proteins are dynamically synthesized and functionally inserted into the lipid bilayer, as proposed in this project. By placing a state-of-the art single molecule visualisation technique right next to a dynamically active synthetic cell, this collaboration will investigate how nature assembles molecular nanomachines made of proteins. These nanomachines take on important function in living systems such as catalysis, cell signalling, and they give the cell its shape and structure.