Using diacetylene-based building blocks, researchers in Eindhoven have succeeded in creating an artificial cytoskeleton that closely mimics the mechanical properties of its living counterpart, reports Nature Chemistry.

If you want to build a functioning, lifelike synthetic cell, a cytoskeleton is an indispensable component. People have been working on this for a while, including on the basis of DNA, but Sebastian Novosedlik, Jan van Hest and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology took a different approach. ‘We took a more polymer-based approach’, explains Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry Jan van Hest. In collaboration with the company SyMO-Chem and the Max Planck Institute in Erlangen, they succeeded in building a polymer skeleton with various natural functions.