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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Trantidou:2018:10.1039/c8lc00028j,
author = {Trantidou, T and Friddin, M and Salehi-Reyhani, S and Ces, O and Elani, Y},
doi = {10.1039/c8lc00028j},
journal = {Lab on a Chip},
pages = {2488--2509},
title = {Droplet microfluidics for the construction of compartmentalised model membranes},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8lc00028j},
volume = {18},
year = {2018}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The design of membrane-based constructs with multiple compartments is of increasing importance given their potential applications as microreactors, as artificial cells in synthetic-biology, as simplified cell models, and as drug delivery vehicles. The emergence of droplet microfluidics as a tool for their construction has allowed rapid scale-up in generation throughput, scale-down of size, and control over gross membrane architecture. This is true on several levels: size, level of compartmentalisation and connectivity of compartments can all be programmed to various degrees. This tutorial review explains and explores the reasons behind this. We discuss microfluidic strategies for the generation of a family of compartmentalised systems that have lipid membranes as the basic structural motifs, where droplets are either the fundamental building blocks, or are precursors to the membrane-bound compartments. We examine the key properties associated with these systems (including stability, yield, encapsulation efficiency), discuss relevant device fabrication technologies, and outline the technical challenges. In doing so, we critically review the state-of-play in this rapidly advancing field.
AU  - Trantidou,T
AU  - Friddin,M
AU  - Salehi-Reyhani,S
AU  - Ces,O
AU  - Elani,Y
DO  - 10.1039/c8lc00028j
EP  - 2509
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1473-0189
SP  - 2488
TI  - Droplet microfluidics for the construction of compartmentalised model membranes
T2  - Lab on a Chip
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8lc00028j
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/61680
VL  - 18
ER  -