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Compartmentalization and spatial control of biochemical reactions are essential for the creation of artificial cellular systems. But it is notoriously difficult to implement reaction networks and membrane building blocks in vitro. In this article, we briefly highlight our work on the formation of peptide-based vesicles as artificial cell precursors with a size of up to 100 µm These cell mimics are able to produce RNA aptamers and proteins at the inside, and are further capable of strong growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for fast and simple assays for nucleic acid detection. As an isothermal alternative to RT-qPCR, we outline the development of a detection scheme for SARS-CoV-2 RNA based on reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) technology. RPA uses recombination proteins in combination with a DNA polymerase for rapid amplification of target DNA at a constant temperature (39–42 °C) within 10 to 20 minutes and can be monitored in real-time with fluorescent probes.