Dynamic microscale droplets produced by liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) have emerged as appealing biomaterials due to their remarkable features. However, the instability of droplets limits the construction of population-level structures with collective behaviors. Here we first provide a brief background of droplets in the context of materials properties. Subsequently, we discuss current strategies for stabilizing droplets including physical separation and chemical modulation. We also discuss the recent development of LLPS droplets for various applications such as synthetic cells and biomedical materials. Finally, we give insights on how stabilized droplets can self-assemble into higher-order structures displaying coordinated functions to fully exploit their potentials in bottom-up synthetic biology and biomedical applications.

Three new ferrocene-substituted aliphatic guanidines were successfully synthesized and well characterized by means of several analytical methods such as FT-IR, ¹H and ¹³C-NMR, Raman, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), and elemental analysis. The amphiphilic nature of ferrocene-based guanidines has been evaluated by determining their critical micelle concentration (CMC) through tensiometry, and UV-visible spectroscopy. The results obtained through both the techniques are in good agreement with each other. It was observed that the alkyl chain length played a major part in determining the CMC in pure ethanol as well as in an ethanol/water mixture. The quantum mechanical parameters such as the energy of frontier molecular orbitals (E_HOMO and E_LUMO) and the Mulliken charge distribution on the optimized structures was determined using a DFT/B3LYP method combined with the 6-31G(d,p) basis set in the gas phase. The shift in the peak potential, current and absorption maxima of the studied ferrocenyl guanidines in the presence of DNA revealed that cyclic voltammetry coupled with UV-visible spectroscopy provided a way to elaborate the DNA interaction mechanism, a pre-requisite for the design of new anticancer agents and understanding of the molecular basis of their action. The synthesized ferrocenyl derivatives exhibited good scavenging activity against the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH). These complexes were also scanned for their in vitro cytotoxicity against the human carcinoma cell line (MCF-7) and a normal cell line (MCF-10A) by means of an MTT assay, thereby rendering G-18 as the most potent chemotherapeutic drug.

Architecture of cloud computing encompasses numerous Internet of Things devices. Due to the recent proliferation of IoT devices, cloud itself is unable to provide the desired information to the end users in optimum time. Moreover, the data transmission between source and destination suffers a bottleneck due to the limited and unequal distribution of bandwidth among various interfaces. This makes the architecture of cloud / fog computing a complex one. MDA (Model Driven Architecture) is marked with abstraction and modularity which in turn reduces the complexity of development. Hence, the complex domain of fog computing and its inherent problem of bandwidth also requires exploration in the context of MDA. Consequently, this article proposes an MD-BA (Model Driven Bandwidth Allocation) framework using a priority algorithm. Primarily, a Meta Model is proposed that allows modeling and visualization of complex systems which may be further automated. As a tool support, a Sirius based graphical modeling tool/workbench has been developed. The proposed framework, along with its tool support, can model a flexible design. It reduces complexity for allocating bandwidth dynamically between all fog peers. The framework is distributable via an eclipse-based plugin. A Model to Text (M2T) transformation code that transforms the developed model into Java Specific code is written as a part of this article. The validity of the proposed framework is demonstrated with a real-world case study. Experimental results prove that the proposed framework can be used to accommodate high priority events and to ensure quick real time response from fog peers that ultimately enhance client's quality of experience.