Designing a membrane-bound liquid cortex for shaping synthetic cells

How do living cells change shape and move in response to stimuli? And how do intracellular membraneless condensates, formed by the process of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), impact these vital processes? Inspired by living systems and using a bottom-up approach, this project will take the very first steps towards building a phase separationbased, membrane-bound biopolymer structure, capable of shaping and moving cell-mimicking vesicles. Meanwhile, utilizing the microfluidic platform, the project tries to regular LLPS inside liposomes to construct artificial membraneless organelles for mimicking the cell functions.