Eilenberger Christoph, Spitz Sarah, Bachmann Barbara Eva Maria, Ehmoser Eva Kathrin, Ertl Peter, Rothbauer Mario
Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, A-1060 Vienna, Austria.
Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration, Vienna, Austria; Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology, Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt (AUVA) Research Centre, A-1200 Vienna, Austria.
Micromachines (Basel). 2019 Apr 27;10(5):285. doi: 10.3390/mi10050285.
Synthetic biology aims to understand fundamental biological processes in more detail than possible for actual living cells. Synthetic biology can combat decomposition and build-up of artificial experimental models under precisely controlled and defined environmental and biochemical conditions. Microfluidic systems can provide the tools to improve and refine existing synthetic systems because they allow control and manipulation of liquids on a micro- and nanoscale. In addition, chip-based approaches are predisposed for synthetic biology applications since they present an opportune technological toolkit capable of fully automated high throughput and content screening under low reagent consumption. This review critically highlights the latest updates in microfluidic cell-free and cell-based protein synthesis as well as the progress on chip-based artificial cells. Even though progress is slow for microfluidic synthetic biology, microfluidic systems are valuable tools for synthetic biology and may one day help to give answers to long asked questions of fundamental cell biology and life itself.
合成生物学旨在比实际活细胞更详细地理解基本生物学过程。合成生物学可以在精确控制和定义的环境及生化条件下对抗人工实验模型的分解和构建。微流控系统可以提供工具来改进和完善现有的合成系统，因为它们允许在微米和纳米尺度上控制和操纵液体。此外，基于芯片的方法适合用于合成生物学应用，因为它们提供了一个合适的技术工具包，能够在低试剂消耗的情况下实现全自动高通量和内容筛选。本综述批判性地突出了微流控无细胞和基于细胞的蛋白质合成的最新进展以及基于芯片的人工细胞的进展。尽管微流控合成生物学进展缓慢，但微流控系统是合成生物学的宝贵工具，也许有一天能帮助解答长期以来关于基本细胞生物学和生命本身的问题。
