A bilayered nanoshell for durable protection of single yeast cells against multiple, simultaneous hostile stimuli

Single cell surface engineering provides the most efficient, non-genetic strategy to enhance cell stability. However, it remains a huge challenge to improve cell stability in complex artificial environments. Here, a soft biohybrid interfacial layer is fabricated on individual living-cell surfaces by their exposure to a suspension of gold nanoparticles and l-cysteine to form a protecting functional layer to which porous silica layers were bound yielding pores with a diameter of 3.9 nm. The living cells within the bilayered nanoshells maintained high viability (96 +/- 2%) as demonstrated by agar plating, even after five cycles of simultaneous exposure to high temperature (40 degrees C), lyticase and UV light. Moreover, yeast cells encapsulated in bilayered nanoshells were more recyclable than native cells due to nutrient storage in the shell.