Figure 1.

Overview of the IFC workflow to characterize gene expressing liposomes. (A) Schematic illustration of the primary components of ImageStream. Giant vesicles are hydrodynamically focused into a core stream and orthogonally illuminated. The emitted or scattered light is captured by the imaging objective, separated into multispectral bands via optical decomposition components, and projected on a charge-coupled detector. While recording, digital pictures are displayed on the computer and stored for analysis. Image adapted with permission from ref (16). Copyright (2004) John Wiley and Sons. (B) Illustration of a liposome-based synthetic cell containing relevant biological processes that have separately been expressed from genes with PURE system: transcription–translation (1), DNA replication (2), phospholipid biosynthesis (3), and the formation of cytoskeletal structures (4). (C) Overview of the workflow for sample treatment, data acquisition, and image processing.