Compartmentalised gel matrix and method of production
AssigneesOxford University Innovation Limited, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
InventorsJohn Hagan Pryce Bayley, Kunwar Tanuj Sapra, Giovanni Maglia, Mariam Mohamed Abdelsattar Bayoumi
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Abstract
The invention provides a compartmentalised gel matrix comprising one or more compartments, wherein each compartment comprises a volume of hydrophobic medium and one or more aqueous droplets therein. The invention further provides a pharmaceutical formulation comprising a compartmentalised gel matrix according to the invention, a synthetic cell comprising a compartmentalised gel matrix according to the invention and a synthetic tissue comprising a compartmentalised gel matrix according to the invention.
Claims24
A multi-compartmentalised gel matrix comprising a gel matrix and a plurality of compartments, wherein each compartment comprises:
- a volume of a hydrophobic medium;
- an outer layer of amphipathic molecules around the volume of hydrophobic medium;
- an aqueous droplet in the volume of hydrophobic medium;
- and
- an inner layer of amphipathic molecules at an interface between the aqueous droplet and the hydrophobic medium.
A compartmentalised gel matrix comprising a gel matrix and a nested compartment, wherein the nested compartment comprises:
- a volume of a hydrophobic medium;
- an aqueous droplet in the hydrophobic medium;
- an aqueous layer around the volume of hydrophobic medium;
- an inner layer of amphipathic molecules at the interface between the aqueous droplet and the hydrophobic medium;
- and
- an outer layer of amphipathic molecules at the interface between the aqueous layer and the volume of hydrophobic medium.
A method of manufacturing a multi-compartmentalised gel matrix, the method comprising:
- (i) inserting a volume of a hydrophobic medium into an incompletely gelled gel precursor via an inserting means to form a compartment;
- (ii) repeating (i) one or more times to provide a plurality of compartments in the gel precursor;
- (iii) gelling the gel precursor;
- (iv) inserting a volume of an aqueous medium into one of the plurality of compartments via an inserting means to form an aqueous droplet therein;
- and
- (v) repeating (iv) a plurality of times to provide an aqueous droplet in each compartment among the plurality of compartments.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.