posted on 2018-06-05, 00:00authored byNan-Nan Deng, Mahesh A. Vibhute, Lifei Zheng, Hui Zhao, Maaruthy Yelleswarapu, Wilhelm T. S. Huck
The compartmentalization
of cell-free gene expression systems in
liposomes provides an attractive route to the formation of protocells,
but these models do not capture the physical (crowded) environment
found in living systems. Here, we present a microfluidics-based route
to produce monodisperse liposomes that can shrink almost 3 orders
of magnitude without compromising their stability. We demonstrate
that our strategy is compatible with cell-free gene expression and
show increased protein production rates in crowded liposome protocells.