Nucleic Acid Nanotechnology Originated ProtoCell - NANOPC

细胞是生命的基本单位，它是动态的系统，能够感知环境并通过各种反应来适应环境。理解和改造活细胞，虽然有很高的回报，但由于生物化学网络的复杂性是细胞最复杂功能的基础，因此具有很大的挑战性。因此，可以构建一种更简单的替代真实细胞的合成细胞——原始细胞——来设计具有细胞样特征的系统。原始细胞有望促进我们对生物学原理的理解，并可能具有重要的医学和工程意义。尽管最近取得了进展，但目前的原始细胞系统无法模仿细胞的核心运作原理，无法持续运作，无法与外部环境相互作用，无法处理信息以做出决策。在这里，我们将利用合理设计的DNA和RNA成分开发一种核酸纳米技术起源的原始细胞（NANOPC）系统。最先进的DNA/RNA纳米技术将用于构建纳米结构和反应回路，以前所未有的精度模拟细胞的蛋白质和遗传网络。由DNA和RNA组成的反应电路是完全可编程的，可以很容易地相互组合，从长远来看，这将允许我们根据需要构建复杂的多功能原始细胞。此外，通过使用我最近的成果在原位生产RNA成分，纳米c将持续地在动态平衡下运行这些反应回路。反应回路将用于控制从外部环境中摄取营养物质，例如在反馈回路中实现传感介导的控制。通过编程NA纳米结构和反应电路，纳米碳将能够实现紧急细胞行为，如维持其内部稳定（稳态）和处理信息的能力。因此，纳米碳纳米管将成为研究生物学基本原理的新平台。DNA/RNA纳米技术的多功能性最终将使NANOPC产生生物医学和工程应用。例如，纳米c可以作为生化网络原型的高通量平台或智能药物输送系统，用于感知肿瘤微环境，处理多种信息以释放药物。

Cells, the basic units of life, are dynamic systems that sense the environment and adapt to it through a variety of responses. Understanding and engineering living cells, although highly rewarding, is greatly challenging, due to the complexity of biochemical networks that underlie a cell's most sophisticated functions. A simpler synthetic alternative to real cells - protocells - can therefore be built to design systems with cell-like traits. Protocells promise to facilitate our understanding of the principles of biology, and could, have important medical and engineering implications. Despite recent progress, current protocell systems fail to mimic core operating principles of cells to continuously operate, interact with the external environment, and process information to make decisions. Here, we will develop a Nucleic Acid Nanotechnology Originated ProtoCell (NANOPC) system using rationally designed DNA and RNA components. State-of-the-art DNA/RNA nanotechnology will be used to build nanostructures and reaction circuits that mimic proteins and genetic networks of a cell with unprecedented precision. Reaction circuits made of DNA and RNA are fully programmable and can be easily combined to each other, which will allow us in the long run, to build complex multifunctional protocells on demand. In addition, the NANOPC will continuously operate these reaction circuits at dynamic equilibrium by using my recent achievement to produce RNA components in situ. The reaction circuits will be used to control the uptake of nutrients from the external environment, implementing sensing-mediated controls for example, in feedback loops. By programming NA nanostructures and reaction circuits, the NANOPC will be able to implement emergent cellular behaviours such as the ability to maintain its internal stability (homeostasis) and processing information. Therefore, the NANOPC will be a novel platform to study basic principles of biology. The versatility of DNA/RNA nanotechnology will ultimately enable NANOPC to generate biomedical and engineering applications. For example, the NANOPC could be a high throughput platform for prototyping biochemical networks or a smart drug delivery system to sense tumour microenvironment, process multiple information to release drugs.