Morphogenic Behavior in Colloidal Droplets

Morphogenesis is a dynamic process central to life, through which structure and compartmentalization emerge to yield functional architectures. Replicating such transformations synthetically remains challenging, as biological morphogenesis relies on highly integrated molecular machinery, obscuring the individual contributions of physical and chemical cues. Here, we report a minimal, biomimetic platform in which amphiphilic triblock copolymers (BCPs) drive programmable and scalable shape transformations in oil microdroplets dispersed in water. Under out-of-equilibrium conditions, droplets undergo topological remodeling that leads to the spontaneous and nonselective internalization of external aqueous environment, including suspended solutes and colloidal matter. This uptake pathway, which occurs without contact with external bodies (as in clathrin-mediated endocytosis), instead arises spontaneously from the chemical background and is reminiscent of biological processes such as pinocytosis and cavity nucleation during organogenesis. At thermodynamic equilibrium, interfacial self-assembly of BCPs combined with droplet swelling stabilizes a rich spectrum of non-spherical morphologies—including porous, flower-like (blebbed), and dendritic structures—whose shapes can be reversibly tuned by BCP concentration and temperature. Starting from monodisperse droplets, these transitions can be induced synchronously across large populations and fixed via in situ photopolymerization. By providing a compositionally simple analogue of cellular remodeling, this system advances colloidal platforms toward biologically relevant complexity while offering a tractable model to experimentally probe the principles of morphogenesis and demonstrate how symmetry breaking and topological remodeling can emerge from minimal ingredients.