Eyal Karzbrun
Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
PhD Candidate, Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv Group
February 20, 2014 | 11:00 to 12:00 | 400 Cory Hall
Host: Michel Maharbiz
Encapsulating biochemical reactions in a bilayer membrane has been the focus of much work toward an artificial cell, but the barrier to materials transport through the membrane inhibits the emergence of essential cellular functions. Here, we circumvent the transport barrier by assembling a membrane-free, two-dimensional (2D) compartment as artificial cell. A DNA program is immobilized with protein synthesizing machinery freely diffusing through a thin 1D capillary. As a central emergent cellular function, encoded gene networks develop auto-regulatory and oscillatory temporal patterns, with protein lifetime and oscillation period controlled by compartment geometry. We demonstrate communication between compartments through diffusion gradients. 2D compartments allow real-time interrogation of gene regulation at the scale and crowded environment of a cell, while enabling design of multi-cellular synthetic networks.
weizmann.ac.il/materials/barziv
---
Interested in nominating someone to speak at the BSAC Technology Seminar? We welcome you to submit a speaker nomination here