#cellular processes

New artificial cells mimic nature's tiny reactors

Artificial cells that mimic their natural counterparts help scientists learn the secrets of complex processes, such as how plant cells turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into fuel. Today’s artificial cells often become unstable when materials transit the membrane. Scientists have developed a new artificial cell where lipid vesicles (small pools of fatty molecules) self-assemble around treated water droplets. The result is an artificial cell or microscopic bioreactor.

On the lDaniel C. Dewey, Christopher A. Strulson, David N. Cacace, Philip C. Bevilacqua, Christine D. Keating. Bioreactor droplets from liposome-stabilized all-aqueous emulsions. Nature Communications, 2014; 5: 4670 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5670

Between successive cell divisions, cells grow through the functioning of cellular metabolism. Cell metabolism is the process by which individual cells process nutrient molecules.  

Complex sugars consumed by the organism can be broken down into a less chemically complex sugar molecule called glucose. Once inside the cell, glucose is broken down to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a form of energy, through two different pathways.  

Cells are capable of synthesizing new proteins, which are essential for the modulation and maintenance of cellular activities. This process involves the formation of new protein molecules from amino acid building blocks based on information encoded in DNA/RNA.   

Prokaryotic cells divide by binary fission, while eukaryotic cells usually undergo a process of nuclear division, called mitosis, followed by division of the cell, called cytokinesis.  

In multicellular organisms, cells can move during processes such as wound healing, the immune response and cancer metastasis.