Stimuli responsive signalling of reconfigurable lipid vesicles. 

This project explores how giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) can be engineered as cell-mimetic systems for building autonomous and reconfigurable microscale architectures. GUVs mimic biological membranes, showing flexibility, selective permeability, and the ability to host active materials, making them promising platforms for artificial cells. We develop programmable vesicles with controlled composition and mechanics using microfluidic and electroformation techniques. By applying AC electric fields, we study how vesicles deform, electroporate, or rupture, aiming to uncover the physical rules that govern membrane stability and layer “peeling” from multilamellar to unilamellar states. The project also investigates multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) as models of compartmentalized structures. By embedding magnetic nanoparticles into specific layers, we create field-responsive vesicles capable of controlled mixing or selective rupture, useful for studying molecular transport and signaling. Ultimately, we aim to understand how vesicles interact and self-organize into prototissues, revealing how external fields and lipid composition control collective dynamics, resilience, and communication in synthetic cellular systems.