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Liposomes, Exosomes, and Virosomes: From Modeling Complex
Membrane Processes to Medical Diagnostics and Drug Delivery
Poster Abstracts
84
32-POS
Board 16
Feedback-Controlled pH-Switching Within Vesicle Nanoreactors
Stephen J. Jones
1
, Paul A. Beales
1
, Annette F. Taylor
2
.
1
University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom,
2
University of Sheffield,
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Within the field of bottom-up synthetic biology, vesicular nanoreactors can be utilised in the
compartmentalisation of a variety of different entities. Such entities, depending on their
biological or chemical function, can be used to define these systems within a specific field of
technological advancement, e.g., therapeutics, biosensing, protocell technology, etc. A
significant challenge for the therapeutic application of vesicle technology is to improve the
communication between a vesicle and its environment, allowing for smart, regulated release of
active compounds in response to a variety of complex biological cues. The primary challenge in
designing an effective and efficient drug delivery system, capable of self-mediating its own
permeability and eliciting a controlled drug-release profile, is the incorporation of self-
regulation. Undoubtedly, to achieve this, some form of feedback control is required. One option,
which complies with the biocompatibility of these therapeutic systems, is enzymatic feedback.
Towards this goal, we will demonstrate a urea-urease base-catalysed feedback-controlled pH-
switch within vesicular confinement. By varying initial reaction conditions, membrane
physicochemical properties, and vesicle sizes (ranging from the nano- to the microscale), we will
demonstrate tuneable temporal and spatial control of the pH-switching behaviour. By
understanding feedback-controlled reactions within self-assembled vesicle compartments, our
long term aim is to engineer systems that can regulate a desired drug release profile, in response
to changing environmental signals.