Block Copolymer Giant Unilamellar Vesicles for High-Throughput Screening

Abstract

Bottom-up synthetic cells offer the potential to study cellular processes with reduced complexity. Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) can mimic cells in their morphological characteristics because their architecture is precisely controllable. We propose a block copolymer-based GUV system that can be used for high-throughput screening. Through droplet microfluidic methods, we produce double emulsions that then serve as templates for GUVs with adjustable inner, polymer membrane, and outer composition. Using flow cytometry, we are able to analyze tens of thousands of GUVs in a short amount of time, enabling their use for screening assays.