Micro- and Nanocompartments for Biotechnology

Abstract

Compartmentalization is an essential feature in the organization of biological systems and plays a fundamental role in modulating biochemical activity within the cell. An appreciation of the impact that biological compartments have on chemical reactions within the cell and an understanding of the physicochemical phenomena that affect their assembly and function have inspired the development of synthetic compartments. Organic compartments assembled from amphiphillic molecules or derived from biological materials, have formed the basis of early work in the field. However, hybrid and inorganic compartments that capitalize on the optical and catalytic properties of metal and semiconductor materials are emerging. Methods for arraying these micro- and nanocompartment materials in higher order systems promise to enable the scaling and integration of these technologies for industrial and commercial applications.