To build an artificial cell from scratch has been a great scientific challenge since the past decades. Cellular activities are highly complex and cooperative, which renders biomimicry challenging. Through “understanding by building” approach, my work involves rebuilding motility and chemotaxis in a bottom-up constructed artificial cell system. By mimicking these life-like activities, we will be able to have a closer look at the mechanisms behind cellular processes and advance more sophisticated biomimetic processes.

Shidong Song received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Xiamen University, China (2015). Then she started her new journey in Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) as a master student in Chemistry. During her master project, she worked on self-assembly and characterization of sequence-controlled polyurethane under supervision of Prof. Ilja Voets, which gave her a background of physical and colloidal chemistry. As of October 2017, she works in van Hest group as a PhD student on reconstruction of chemotaxis in synthetic protocells to build artificial cell systems.