ArticleNature communications2023
Liquid spherical shells are a non-equilibrium steady state of active droplets.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 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.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sustained formation movement and destruction of coacervates in a waste-free system driven by electricity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Elucidating the Reciprocal Interplay between Supramolecular Polymer Cytoskeletons and Fuel-Dependent Synthetic Cells.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Design of Fuel-Dependent, Complex-Coacervate-Based Synthetic Cells.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Bridging stimulus-responsive and dissipative peptide assemblies to build complex interactive biomaterials.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- Reversible Nucleolar Complex Coacervation by Short Cationic Peptides.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Dynamics of synthetic transcriptional condensates emerge from RNA synthesis and degradation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Nonequilibrium phases of a biomolecular condensate facilitated by enzyme activity.Soft matter · 2026Article
- DNA affects the phenotype of fuel-dependent coacervate droplets.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Transiently amplified fluctuations assemble dissipative materials.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Tailoring the Stability of W/O/W Liquid Foundations: A Comparative Study of Polyglycerol-Based W/O Emulsifiers.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Self-assembled cell-scale containers made from DNA origami membranes.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Mechanical Energy Drives Dissipative Self-Assembly of Nanocoacervates into Vesicles with Cell-like Properties.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Design and applications of synthetic biomolecular condensates.Nature nanotechnology · 2026Review
- Transient pH changes drive vacuole formation in enzyme-polymer condensates.Nature chemical engineering · 2026Article
- Hollow condensates emerge from gelation-induced spinodal decomposition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Enzymatically reconfigurable liquid crystalline coacervate microdroplets as protocell models.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Chemically Fueled, Active Droplets Prevent the Aging of Peptides into Amyloid-Like Fibers.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Sustained, Reversible, and Adaptive Non-Equilibrium Steady States of a Dissipative DNA-Based System.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Coacervate Vesicles as Adaptive Platforms for Synthetic Biology and Smart Materials.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Review
- Interfacial effects determine nonequilibrium phase behaviors in chemically driven fluids.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase separation yields spherical droplets that eventually coarsen to one large, stable droplet governed by the principle of minimal free energy. In chemically fueled phase separation, the formation of phase-separating molecules is coupled to a fuel-driven, non-equilibrium reaction cycle. It thus yields dissipative structures sustained by a continuous fuel conversion. Such dissipative structures are ubiquitous in biology but are poorly understood as they are governed by non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Here, we bridge the gap between passive, close-to-equilibrium, and active, dissipative structures with chemically fueled phase separation. We observe that spherical, active droplets can undergo a morphological transition into a liquid, spherical shell. We demonstrate that the mechanism is related to gradients of short-lived droplet material. We characterize how far out of equilibrium the spherical shell state is and the chemical power necessary to sustain it. Our work suggests alternative avenues for assembling complex stable morphologies, which might already be exploited to form membraneless organelles by cells.
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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.