Abstract
A molecular robot is a microorganism-imitating micro robot that is designed from the molecular level and constructed by bottom-up approaches. As with conventional robots, molecular robots consist of three essential robotics elements: control of intelligent systems, sensors, and actuators, all integrated into a single micro compartment. Due to recent developments in microfluidic technologies, DNA nanotechnologies, synthetic biology, and molecular engineering, these individual parts have been developed, with the final picture beginning to come together. In this review, we describe recent developments of these sensors, actuators, and intelligence systems that can be applied to liposome-based molecular robots. First, we explain liposome generation for the compartments of molecular robots. Next, we discuss the emergence of robotics functions by using and functionalizing liposomal membranes. Then, we discuss actuators and intelligence via the encapsulation of chemicals into liposomes. Finally, the future vision and the challenges of molecular robots are described.
Highlights
An artificial cell is a cell-imitating artificial system that exhibits characteristics of living cells, including evolution, self-reproduction, metabolization, and communication [1,2,3]
The essential robotics components that are intelligence systems [18], sensors [19], and actuators [20,21,22,23] are developed by integrating various technologies, such as DNA nanotechnologies, synthetic biology, polymer chemistry, and robotics, and these components are implemented into a microcompartment using bottom-up approaches
Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) [24,25], DNA capsules [26,27], gels [28,29], and polymersomes [30] have been proposed as structures that may act as such compartments
Summary
An artificial cell is a cell-imitating artificial system that exhibits characteristics of living cells, including evolution, self-reproduction, metabolization, and communication [1,2,3]. The GUVs formed by these methods cannot be applied to the development of molecular robots due to the lack of monodispersity in size and encapsulation efficiency To overcome these issues, numerous microfluidic techniques to form GUVs have been reported. The w/o emulsions were transferred to the lipid monolayer prepared in the microchannels, facilitating the generation of GUVs (Figure 1a) Another approach to improve the monodispersity and productivity of GUVs is a microcapillary-based centrifugal microchip [39,40]. GUVs with a higher throughput and uniformity in size were formed when compared with other droplet-transferred methods, including microfluidic methods Another strategy to prepare GUVs using microfluidic technologies is by w/o/w emulsion template methods [41,42].
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