Unlocking a new toolkit for mediating protein-based interactions between synthetic cells and real cells

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A major bottleneck in the field of cellular bionics and bottom-up synthetic biology is the ability to reversibly decorate the chassis of synthetic cells with user defined proteins. Unlocking this technology bottleneck would transform our ability to mediate interactions between synthetic cells and between synthetic cells and real cells across extended length scales including tissues based materials. This project will lead to the development of a new generation of artificial lipids that are able to reversibly bind an extended library of commercially available his-tagged proteins thereby revolutionising our ability to functionalise cellular bionic systems. We will validate this strategy by using this approach to modulate communication between synthetic cells and real cells at the single cell level. In addition by making use of extracellular proteins, such as integrin and cadherin we will manufacture hybrid tissues that accommodate living and synthetic cells. This approach is highly flexible and can be extended to accommodate most commercially available tags.