Dynamic artificial cells by swarm nanorobotics and synthetic life chemistry

Abstract

Artificial cell mimicry is extremely valuable in basic and applied biotechnological research. However, the existing construction of artificial cell compartments is typically static, creating a distinction between them and the dynamic natural cells. Herein, we describe a programmable dynamic artificial cell model using swarm nanorobotics and cell-free synthetic transcription-translation solution chemistry. Under the physical control of two- or three-dimensional magnetic fields by varying the direction, strength, and frequency, diverse compartmentation configurations in clusters, chains, and sheets were produced with DNAs and magnetic particles of different morphologies. These diverse dynamic artificial cell architectures exhibit distinct transcription and translation activities. Using swarm robotics and synthetic life chemistry could provide a new paradigm to construct imaginative artificial cells and provide significant insights into the fundamental life processes and biological applications.