On April 21, 2021, 12:00 to 01:00 pm, the Cluster's next Journal Club @Lunch will take place. The presenter will be Doctoral Researcher Kevin Jahnke (Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Thrust B1). During the Journal Club @Lunch, he will present the paper “Actuation of synthetic cells with proton gradients generated by light-harvesting E. coli” (currently in pre-print) in round about 20 minutes, afterwards he will answer questions from the audience.

Abstract

Bottom-up synthetic biology aims to construct synthetic cells from natural and artificial molecular constituents to enhance our understanding of life while providing new directions for biomedical applications. However, many systems lack controllability via external stimuli, which would help to understand complex dynamic systems and processes by providing a highly controlled environment. Here, we use light as an external stimulus to achieve full spatio-temporal control over the dynamic actuation of synthetic cells. By engineering light-harvesting E.coli and DNA nanostructures, we can trigger an optical and nanomechanical response of cell-sized compartments via light illumination. Ultimately, we show that we can even sculpt synthetic cellular compartments by using the pH-sensitive attachment of DNA origami plates to giant unilamellar vesicles.