Living cells utilize membrane channels to regulate signaling molecules in cellular biochemical pathways. While these membrane channels and biopores have been implemented in artificial cells to reconstitute cellular functions, they are often difficult to purify and quantitatively insert in the membrane. In this work, we present the microfluidic synthesis of polymersomes that allows small molecules with molecular weight below the cut-off value to readily permeate through to achieve signal-triggered biochemical reactions. The membrane of these polymersomes are semi-permeable and consists of a triblock copolymer, Pluronic L121 (PEG-PPG-PEG) with a low hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic volume ratio. By taking advantage of these Pluronic-based polymersome membrane which enables small signal molecules to penetrate across the membrane without any use of biopores, we successfully demonstrate signal-driven phase separation as well as cascade enzymatic reactions in polymersomes. We believe that these polymersomes offer a facile platform in artificial cell research to study even more complex and programmable biochemical pathways.

Microfluidic synthesis of polymersomes with semi-permeable membrane for spatiotemporal control of biochemical reactions

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