Independent Research Group of 
Seraphine Wegner

Spatiotemporal control with light in synthetic cells

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz

It is a great challenge to construct from molecular building blocks minimal synthetic cells that can mimic life processes. 
In the Wegner group, we aim to spatiotemporal control over diverse processes in minimal synthetic cells using light as stimuli. As observed in nature, the spatiotemporal control of events at different length scales is important for function. Examples of such spatiotemporally controlled events are the formation of protein patterns, the distribution of adhesions in a migrating cell, the self-sorting of cells during tissue formation and cell-cell communication. Achieving equivalent complexity and emergence in bottom-up assembled minimal synthetic cells requires the precise spatiotemporal control of interactions between different minimal synthetic cells as well as other interphases.