PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1690404
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Bacteriophage Research & Development with Therapeutic ApplicationsView all 11 articles
Synthetic Cells for Phage Therapy: A Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- 2University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 3Biophoundry, Inc., Chapel Hill, United States
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A synthetic cell is a membrane-bound vesicle that encapsulates cell-free transcription/translation (TXTL) systems. It represents a transformative platform for advancing bacteriophage therapy. Building on experimental work that demonstrates (i) modular genome assembly, (ii) high-yield phage TXTL systems, and (iii) smart hydrogel encapsulation, we explore how synthetic cells can address major limitations in phage therapy. The promising advances include point-of-care phage manufacturing, logic-responsive antimicrobial biomaterials, and new chassis to dissect the dynamics of phage-host interactions. We also propose a roadmap for the deployment of synthetic cells as programmable and evolvable tools in the context of laboratory research and translational clinical adoption.
Keywords: cell-free protein synthesis, transcription/translation (TXTL), synthetic cells, Synthetic Biology, Bacteriophages, Phagetherapy, Microfluidics, Hydrogel
Received: 21 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kulkarni, Laohakunakorn and Liyanagedera. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sahan B.W. Liyanagedera, s.liyanagedera@gmail.com
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