Light-Addressable Biohybrid Nano-Organelles for Programmable Multiscale Bioenergetics.

Abstract

A defining feature of living cells is their ability to harvest environmental energy and convert it into spatially regulated biochemical work. Reconstituting such programmable bioenergetics across length scales remains a major challenge in biohybrid materials. Here, we report light-addressable biohybrid nano-organelles that couple plasmonic nanochemistry with biological energy transduction to enable programmable bioenergetics from nanoscale to tissue scale. A hollow Au-Pt plasmonic catalytic shell is hierarchically integrated with bacterial membranes bearing F0F1-ATP synthase, yielding nano-organelles that convert near-infrared excitation (785 nm) into a transmembrane proton gradient (ΔpH) and light-gated ATP generation. Microfluidic encapsulation within giant unilamellar vesicles produces structurally uniform, energy-autonomous protocells. Upon optical activation, plasmon-enhanced glucose oxidation establishes ΔpH-driven ATP synthesis that powers spatiotemporally regulated actin polymerization, resulting in reversible, light-programmable morphogenesis at the single vesicle level. When embedded in alginate-based prototissues, these nano-organelles provide remotely addressable metabolic support, enhancing ATP levels and matrix stiffness under oxidative stress. This work establishes a modular multiscale biohybrid platform for optically programmable bioenergetics and advances the design of energy-active synthetic cell and tissue-like systems.