@misc{10481/112201,
year = {2026},
month = {4},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/112201},
abstract = {Synthetic protocells are self-assembled compartments designed to reproduce minimal features of prebiotic 
boundaries through bottom-up assembly. They offer a controlled platform to isolate universal physicochem
ical principles relevant to both origins-of-life studies and life-like soft materials. Despite improved control 
over composition and architecture, most current protocells remain weakly dissipative and near reversible 
in contrast to living cells sustained by continuous nonequilibrium fluxes. Because autonomous energy trans
duction is often absent, external fields are used to actuate compartments and induce life-like functions. This 
perspective reviews field-responsive protocells and analyzes how light, electric, and magnetic inputs couple 
to material properties to generate morphological transitions, transport, and adaptive responses. We intro
duce a classification of actuation regimes and a framework to separate passive forced behavior from genuine 
nonequilibrium internal state changes. We further outline strategies to quantify state variables, fluxes, and 
dissipation and propose hybrid designs coupling external actuation with internal energy transduction for 
adaptive, multiresponsive protocells.},
organization = {European Union’s Horizon Europe (SigSynCell) and UKRI - (101119961)},
organization = {IdEx Bordeaux and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche - (ANR-23-CE06-0007-01)},
publisher = {Elsevier},
keywords = {protocells},
keywords = {nonequilibrium},
keywords = {Biomimetic},
title = {Life-like processes in synthetic  protocells under external fields},
doi = {10.1016/j.newton.2026.100444},
author = {Willems, Vivien and Moreno Reolid, Pablo and Fojo, José and Rodríguez Arco, Laura and Álvarez, Laura},
}