Remotely Activated Protein-Producing Nanoparticles

The development of responsive nanomaterials, nanoscale systems that actively respond to stimuli, is one general goal of nanotechnology. Here we develop nanoparticles that can be controllably triggered to synthesize proteins. The nanoparticles consist of lipid vesicles filled with the cellular machinery responsible for transcription and translation, including amino acids, ribosomes, and DNA caged with a photolabile protecting group. These particles served as nanofactories capable of producing proteins including green fluorescent protein (GFP) and enzymatically active luciferase. In vitro and in vivo, protein synthesis was spatially and temporally controllable, and could be initiated by irradiating micrometer-scale regions on the time scale of milliseconds. The ability to control protein synthesis inside nanomaterials may enable new strategies to facilitate the study of orthogonal proteins in a confined environment and for remotely activated drug delivery.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Grant U54 CA151884)Marie D. and Pierre Casimir-Lambert FundNational Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Cancer Center Support (Core) Grant P30-CA14051)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB000244