Encapsulation of complex solutions using droplet microfluidics towards the synthesis of artificial cells

In the last decade, attempts at synthesizing artificial cells for studying cell biology or for biomedical and therapeutic applications have increased dramatically. Yet, a large part of research is still dependent on conventional reconstitution techniques. To increase the level of complexity of artificial cell models, recent advances in droplet microfluidics pose tremendous potential for construction of artificial cells by providing a membrane interface that can harbor biochemical processes. In this review, we describe the growing field of artificial cell engineering with the focus on depicting advances in microfluidic approaches for encapsulation of biomolecules. (topical review)