Huawen Wu, Ann E. Oliver, Viviane N. Ngassam, Chanel K. Yee, Atul N. Parikh, Yin Yeh, Integrative Biology 4, 685-692, 2012

Native vesicles or “reduced protocells” derived by mechanical extrusion concentrate selected plasma membrane components, while downsizing complexities of whole cells. We illustrate this technique, characterize the physical-chemical properties of these reduced configurations of whole cells, and demonstrate their surface immobilization and patternability. This simple detergent-free vesicularized membrane preparation should prove useful in fundamental studies of cellular membranes, and may provide a means to engineer therapeutic cells and enable high-throughput devices containing near-native, functional proteolipidic assemblies.