ArticleNature communications2022
Synthetic cells with self-activating optogenetic proteins communicate with natural cells.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phosphoserine as an Alternative Energy Source forACS synthetic biology · 2026Article
- Amino acid balancing and microalgal proteins (Spirulina) improve production performance and milk quality in dairy cows under low-protein diets.NPJ science of food · 2026Article
- Let There be Light! Light as an Engine and Regulator in Synthetic Cells.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Review
- Autonomous Cargo Transport with Biohybrid Microswimmers Enabled by Light-Mediated Bacteria-Cargo Communication.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- A robust method for on-chip production and manipulation of lipid vesicles by inverted emulsion.Cell reports methods · 2026Article
- Engineering synthetic cells with intramembrane domains possessing distinct bilayer asymmetries.Nature communications · 2026Article
- E50A Mutation Increases the Bioluminescence Activity of picALuc.Biosensors · 2026Article
- Magneto-Photonic Gene Circuit for Minimally Invasive Control of Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Light-Controlled Membrane Fusion in Synthetic Cells.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Protein engineering: status report.Protein engineering, design & selection : PEDS · 2026Review
- Bioactive Artificial Cells as Autonomous Metabolic Actuators Enable Bidirectional Communication with Tumor Cells.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Quantitative assessment of porin-mediated solute transport in biomimetic membranes.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Magneto-Photonic Gene Circuit for Minimally Invasive Control of Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- High-Resolution Patterned Delivery of Chemical Signals From 3D-Printed Picoliter Droplet Networks.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Scaling Up Synthetic Cell Production Using Robotics and Machine Learning Toward Therapeutic Applications.Advanced biology · 2025Article
- Responsive DNA artificial cells for contact and behavior regulation of mammalian cells.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Lighting up yeast: overview of optogenetics in yeast and their applications to yeast biotechnology.FEMS yeast research · 2025Review
- Light-Based Juxtacrine Signaling Between Synthetic Cells.Small science · 2025Article
- Supramolecular fibrillation in coacervates and other confined systems towards biomimetic function.Communications chemistry · 2024Review
- Bioluminescent Systems for Theranostic Applications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Development of regulated cellular processes and signaling methods in synthetic cells is essential for their integration with living materials. Light is an attractive tool to achieve this, but the limited penetration depth into tissue of visible light restricts its usability for in-vivo applications. Here, we describe the design and implementation of bioluminescent intercellular and intracellular signaling mechanisms in synthetic cells, dismissing the need for an external light source. First, we engineer light generating SCs with an optimized lipid membrane and internal composition, to maximize luciferase expression levels and enable high-intensity emission. Next, we show these cells' capacity to trigger bioprocesses in natural cells by initiating asexual sporulation of dark-grown mycelial cells of the fungus Trichoderma atroviride. Finally, we demonstrate regulated transcription and membrane recruitment in synthetic cells using bioluminescent intracellular signaling with self-activating fusion proteins. These functionalities pave the way for deploying synthetic cells as embeddable microscale light sources that are capable of controlling engineered processes inside tissues.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.