• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.553-553
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• 2012

The artificial shells of hard inorganic nanocomposites on individual cells would protect the cells physically and chemically, and control cell division. These emerging properties could be combined with cell-surface functionalizations for applications to cell-based sensors and assays as well as for fundamental studies on single-cell biology. In this work, individual Chlorella cells were encapsulated within a silica/titania nanocomposite shell in a biocompatible fashion that utilized a designed peptide, RKKRKKRKKRKKDDDDDDDD, as a catalytic template for formation of both $SiO_2$ and $TiO_2$ on the cell surface. The cell viability was maintained, and the division of the encapsulated Chlorella cells was controlled. The cell viability was enhanced compared with the $TiO_2$-shell formation. In addition, the incorporation of $TiO_2$ to the shell made it possible to anchor the ligands of interest to the shell via catechol chemistry. All in all, the combination of biological $SiO_2$ and abiolgical $TiO_2$ for the shell formation gave more tunability of the artificial shells compared with the $SiO_2$ or $TiO_2$ shells only.