Studying phase separation in confinement

Cells organize their interior through membrane-bound organelles and through membraneless condensates that are formed by liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). The complex process of coacervation that is involved in LLPS is challenging to study in living cells. Hence, studying coacervation in cell-mimicking synthetic containers can yield...

Tailoring the appearance: what will synthetic cells look like?

Recently, the bottom-up assembly of a synthetic cell has emerged as a daring novel approach that can be expected to have major impact in generating fundamental insight in the organization and function of actual biological cells, as well as in stimulating a broad range of applications from drug delivery systems to chemical nanofactories. A...