Self-assembled artificial bacterium?

from the higher-order-self-assembly dept.
BrianWang and GinaMiller both reported this U of Illinois news release: "By manipulating simple and nonspecific interactions, researchers have discovered a way to make chemicals spontaneously self-assemble into ribbon-like tubules that resemble bacterial cell walls. The micrometer-sized tubules have potential applications in drug delivery systems and as templates for the synthesis of inorganic nanostructured materials." The Science article (abstract and summary free with registration) about this work concludes "The tubules described here…can be thought of as constituting a spontaneously assembled 'artificial' bacterium." CP: An overstatement, but the reseachers get points for vision.