Microreactors: Toward Microfluidic Reactors for Cell‐Free Protein Synthesis at the Point‐of‐Care (Small 6/2016)

Multiscale fluidic reactors with integrated nanoporous membranes enable prolonged cell-free reactions for efficient therapeutic protein production as required for point-of-care needs. S. T. Retterer and co-workers show on page 810 how the membrane permeability can be tuned to optimize exchange between a primary reaction channel, containing protein production machinery, and a ‘feeder’ channel that supplies raw materials and energy to the system. Improvements in both protein yield and production rates compared to commercial systems are realized.