Programmable liquid, gel and biohybrid compartments and methods of use

Abstract

Nano- to microscale liquid coacervate particles are provided. The liquid coacervate particles are produced by a process including stimulating a population of liquid droplets containing one or a mixture of components to induce a phase separation point of a first component, and maintaining stimulation at the phase separation point to form a coacervate domain of the first component within each of the droplets to form the liquid coacervate particles. The self-assembled nano, meso, micro and macro liquid coacervate particles and related coated substrates can have utility in drug delivery, bioanalytical systems, controlled cell culture, tissue engineering, biomanufacturing and drug discovery.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of PCT Patent Application No. PCT / US15 / 55836 filed Oct. 15, 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 62 / 064,057 filed Oct. 15, 2014, the disclosure of both of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FEDERAL FUNDING LEGEND[0002]The invention was made with Government support under Federal Grant No. DMR-1121107 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The Government has certain rights in the invention.TECHNICAL FIELD[0003]The presently disclosed subject matter relates to programmable liquid, gel and biohybrid compartments and methods of use.BACKGROUND[0004]Multi-phase compartments are ubiquitous within biological cells, provide a powerful method for segregation of biomolecules, and are universal motifs in synthetic polymeric particle fabrication. Unfortunately, a broad platform for the in vitro programming of complex and hierarchical multi-phase structures has rem...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a method for making small liquid particles called coacervate domains. These domains are formed by inducing a phase separation point in a solution of components. The method involves stimulating the solution to induce the phase separation point of one component, and then maintaining the stimulation to allow the components to separate. The resulting coacervate domains can be stabilized by cross-links or other means. The method can be used to make these particles using mechanical agitation, sonication, or microfluidics. The particles can be used for various applications such as drug delivery, biosensors, and cell culture. The method can also be used to make capsule structures on a substrate by controlling the wetting property of the substrate. The components can include polymers, proteins, or other molecules.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, a broad platform for the in vitro programming of complex and hierarchical multi-phase structures has remained elusive.

However, these approaches have been limited to varying extents by: the need for complex and specialized fluidic devices, low fabrication throughput, limitations in achievable particle size, and constraints on material components due to assembly requirements.

Thus, both current microfluidic and existing bulk techniques for fabrication of hierarchical liquid-liquid, gel and particle systems are severely lacking in scalability, size control, ease of fabrication, and morphological diversity.

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