Molecular Systems Engineering

"We will rock you": NCCR MSE researchers from the Fussenegger group are developing a gene switch that triggers insulin release in designer cells by playing certain rock and pop songs. The insulin-​producing designer cells were equipped with an ion channel of a bacterium that reacts to mechanical stimuli like sound waves.
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A special issue commemorating Wolfgang Meier, who had significant contributions in the fields of amphiphilic copolymer syntheses and their hierarchical self-assembly, block copolymer vesicles (so-called polymersomes), and hybrid membranes has been published jointly by Macromolecular Rapid Communications and Macromolecular Bioscience.
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Human pluripotent stem cells can be used to derive in vitro models recapitulating post-implantation human embryos. While useful for research purposes, such integrated embryo models raise ethical issues that need to be addressed to facilitate ethically appropriate policies and regulations that permit scientific ingenuity and medical progress. A perspective written by Alessandro Blasimme from the Vayena group.
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Every day, millions of cells die in our body. Other than generally assumed, cells do not simply burst at the end of their lives but rather, a specific protein serves as a breaking point for cell membrane rupture. As part of a larger initiative,  researchers from the Müller group have now been able to elucidate the exact mechanism at the atomic level. They have published their results in the journal Nature.
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Researchers from Basel and Zurich, including the NCCR MSE groups of Treutlein, Roska and Scholl are creating a high-​resolution atlas that depicts the development of the human retina. One technique they use is a new method that allows them to visualise more than 50 proteins simultaneously. The results have been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
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Researchers in the Roska group have identified a new brain circuit in mouse embryos that develops at an unexpectedly early stage. Their findings may provide new insights into circuit abnormalities in autism. The results have been published in the journal Cell.
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A fuel cell under the skin that converts blood sugar from the body into electrical energy sounds like science fiction. Yet it works perfectly, as the NCCR MSE research team led by Martin Fussenegger has shown. This allows the use of excess metabolic energy to produce electricity to power biomedical devices. When combined with artificial, insulin-​releasing beta cells, the system produces insulin at the touch of a button and effectively lowers blood glucose levels.
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Researchers in the Palivan group have developed a reusable biomolecular signaling platform comprising catalytic nanocompartments whose geometrical arrangement enabled effective communication. The chip promoted transfer of signals between neighboring nanocompartments and thereby triggered a complex cascade reaction (DNA synthesis, inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production) that ultimately produced light. The simple removal and reloading of catalytic compartments rendered the platform suitable for multiple cycles of cascade reactions. Such polymer-based nano-compartment assemblies offer an ideal scaffold for the development of the next generation responsive and communicative soft-matter analytical devices for applications in catalysis and medicine.
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Researchers in the Palivan group have developed a strategy for the controlled self-organization of disparate nanoobjects into hybrid clusters as a new type of material at nano-scale. These clusters uniquely combine "hard" asymmetric nanoparticles, named Janus nanoparticles, with "soft" vesicles by using DNA as linkers. The "hard" Janus nanoparticles direct the self-organisation of the clusters whilst the “soft” vesicles serve for loading of desired cargos promoting bio-applications.
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