Fake Cell

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) have taken lab-on-a-chip thinking to the next level; they have created a microfluidics device that mimics a cellular Golgi body.  They call it an artificial organelle, but at present it can only perform the simplest functions a natural Golgi body does in creating glycoproteins.  But this is a noble start, and the problem driving it is quite interesting: how do cells in a pigs intestines synthesize the glycosaminoglycan medicine knows as heparin.  The market for this drug, from natural extraction, is $6 b.  If by slowly following the movements of microscopic doses of sugars and enzymes with a protein backbone it becomes possible to synthesize heparin, not only might that be a more economical production process, but one that does not risk the contamination which is now a problem with pig guts

Technology Review Article and Medical News Today Article  

Image Credit: Courtesy JACS  and Technology Review