Abstract
Living cells have evolved over billions of years to develop structural and functional complexity with numerous intracellular compartments that are formed due to liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). Discovery of the amazing and vital roles of cells in life has sparked tremendous efforts to investigate and replicate the intracellular LLPS. Among them, all‐aqueous emulsions are a minimalistic liquid model that recapitulates the structural and functional features of membraneless organelles and protocells. Here, an emerging all‐aqueous microfluidic technology derived from micrometer‐scaled manipulation of LLPS is presented; the technology enables the state‐of‐art design of advanced biomaterials with exquisite structural proficiency and diversified biological functions. Moreover, a variety of emerging biomedical applications, including encapsulation and delivery of bioactive gradients, fabrication of artificial membraneless organelles, as well as printing and assembly of predesigned cell patterns and living tissues, are inspired by their cellular counterparts. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for further advancing the cell‐inspired all‐aqueous microfluidics toward a more powerful and versatile platform are discussed, particularly regarding new opportunities in multidisciplinary fundamental research and biomedical applications.
Highlights
We summarize up-to-date progress in all-aqueous microfluidics, from fluidic fundamentals mimicking the intracellular organelles to fabrication of cell-inspired advanced biomaterials
Taking advantages of various cell-inspired fluidic structures created by all-aqueous microfluidics and intrinsic characteristics of liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), all-aqueous droplets can be used as templates for shaping and structuring biomaterials
We have outlined the recent progress in the development of cell-inspired all-aqueous microfluidics by overviewing the features of intracellular liquid–liquid phase separation
Summary
Nature has evolved for billions of years to develop elaborate and sophisticated living organisms,[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] which can provide sources of inspired solutions for various intriguing and enduring scientific and technique questions.[10,11,12,13] a single cell is the simplest unit of living organisms, it is rich in high degrees of structural and functional complexities.[14,15,16,17] The amazing and vital role of cells in life have attracted great scientific interests for constructing “artificial cells” by combining biological or nonbiological components to form microscaled assemblies that are intended to mimic one or more aspects of cells,[18,19,20,21,22] such as the semipermeable membrane assembly and the ability to perform a simple reaction in their interiors.[23,24,25,26] The development of artificial cellular systems has led to progresses in understanding the origin of life, connecting the nonliving to. We review the distinct characteristics of all-aqueous emulsions with a focus on their similarities with intracellular LLPS to demonstrate their superior feasibility as templates for developing cell-inspired biomaterials
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