Multivesicular Vesicles: Preparation and Applications

Abstract

The front cover artwork was prepared by Louise Mari Bautista, associate consultant. The image depicts a multivesicular vesicle and the different methods that can be used to guide their assembly along with the possible applications of this type of multicompartment system in drug delivery or as artificial cell-like systems. It may well be that vesicles, including multivesicular vesicles, formed in prebiotic times as protocellular structures before the first living cells emerged from non-living forms of matter, at the origin of life. The use of vesicles as protocell models is one of the research approaches within the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (MSCA-ITN) ProtoMet (members of this consortium are shown in the 16 images above; the consortium is coordinated by Sheref S. Mansy). The review on this subject published in this issue is the result of a cooperation within the ProtoMet consortium between two groups whose encounter would not likely have happened without the research network (the four review authors are shown in the photographs above and denoted with a * symbol). Read the full text of the Review at 10.1002/syst.202000049.