Séminaire par Nicolas MARTIN
Lundi 21 octobre 2019 - 14h00 - Salle Maroni / MHT
Nicolas MARTIN, du Centre de Recherche Paul pascal à Pessac, fera une présentation intitulée: "Synthetic cells based on liquid-liquid phase separation"
Living cells have long been a source of inspiration to chemists.Compartmentalization is one of the central hallmark of living cells that allows them to perform complex tasks by coordinating matter and energy fluxes in space and time. Recent years havewitnessed growing interest in the bottom-up assembly of synthetic micro-compartments capable of reproducing life-like functions. These synthetic cells provide new approaches to the construction of smart colloidal systems with life-inspired functions, while shedding light on the transition from non-living to living systems. In this talk, I will show how liquid-liquid phase separation processes in water such as complex coacervation are being exploited to create synthetic cells. I will show that micro-droplets formed by coacervation can be functionalized with catalytically active enzymes, and will discuss tools to control the reversible condensation and dissolution of droplets. In particular, I will introduce the use of light-responsive azobenzene-based photoswitches for the spatiotemporal control of coacervation and biomolecule compartmentalization. Recent directions towards the design of populations of synthetic cells capable of collective behaviour will also be discussed.
References
[1] N. Martin, Dynamic synthetic cells based on liquid-liquid phase separation. ChemBioChem 2019
[2] N. Martin et al. Photoswitchable phase separation and oligonucleotide trafficking in DNA coacervate micro-droplets. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019
[3] N. Martin et al. Antagonistic chemical coupling in self-reconfigurable host-guest protocells. Nat. Commun. 2018
Contact: Anne-Françoise Mingotaud- afmingo@chimie.ups-tlse.fr
