Chemical Communication\nbetween Giant Vesicles and\nGated Nanoparticles for Strip-Based Sensing

Inspired by nature,\nthe development of artificial micro/nanosystems\ncapable of communicating has become an emergent topic in nanotechnology,\nsynthetic biology, and related areas. However, the demonstration of\nactual applications still has to come. Here, we demonstrate how chemical\ncommunication between micro- and nanoparticles can be used for the\ndesign of sensing systems. To realize this, we synergistically combine\ntwo different types of particles: i.e., giant unilamellar vesicles\n(GUVs) as senders and gated mesoporous nanoparticles as receivers.\nThe use of engineered GUVs allows the detection of analytes based\non responsive membranes, while the use of gated nanoparticles allows\na straightforward application on test strips with smartphone-based\ndetection. In addition, we demonstrate that the combined communication\nsystem exhibits signal amplification and its application in real samples\nemploying the bacterial toxin α-hemolysin as target analyte.\nAltogether, our report presents a new route for engineering sensing\nsystems based on the combination of communicative micro/nanoparticles.