Cytocompatibility Optimization for Silica Coating of Individual HeLa Cells

Bioinspired silicification has attracted a great deal of attention as a cytocompatible method for encapsulating proteins and living cells. Although bioinspired silicification has successfully been applied to the individual encapsulation of the microbial cells that possess durable cell walls, the conditions for the silica coating of mammalian cells remain to be optimized. In this work, we systematically varied the silicification conditions and optimized them for silica coating of HeLa cells as a model.