Biomineralized nanosilica-based organelles endow living yeast cells with non-inherent biological functions.

We propose a biomimetic strategy to construct engineered yeast cells (EYCs) by building intracellular silica nanoscaffolds as biomimetic organelles. This nanosilica-based organelles could coordinate with loaded drug and yeast as shell could prevent drug leakage. In vivo results show EYCs serve as a dually responsive drug delivery system, targeted with extracellular caps (folate) and triggered by intracellular SiO2 at low pH of cancer tissue.