Artificial Organelles
Cellular organelles are compartmentalized structures that perform specific tasks inside the cells. Organelles protect their internal components (e.g., enzymes) from incompatible processes in the cytosol, and create a controlled environment that allows biochemical reactions to occur at the right place and time. In our group, we engineer artificial organelles that are inspired by the structure and functions of biological organelles. These artificial organelles are built from scratch using functional biomolecules (e.g., enzymes) and synthetic materials (e.g., silica, block copolymers, photocatalysts). We are particularly interested in using artificial organelles to create multi-compartmentalized systems (e.g., artificial cells) and to use these bio-inspired nanoreactors in cutting-edge therapeutic applications. Artificial organelles can be designed to be internalized by cells, which provides direct access to the biological machinery of living cells. Therefore, artificial organelles can be used to fix metabolic deficiencies in cells, or to deactivate harmful processes caused by damaged cells in the body (e.g., cancer). For example, we designed nanoreactors that can produce an anticancer agent directly inside the cancer cells (Nano Lett. 2020, 20, 1, 526–533).
