Volume 1 Issue 7, July 2024

Biomanufacturing can be scaled up with technological innovation, feedstock supply optimization and proper infrastructure, argues Sang Yup Lee.

Jason Hallett, professor of sustainable chemical technology at Imperial College London, talks to Nature Chemical Engineering about technology translation for spinout companies and the use of ionic liquids in sustainable chemical process design.

Engineering synthetic cells faces the challenge of transferring biomolecules, such as nucleic acids and proteins, through simple lipid bilayers. Now, a study reveals how energy-dissipating oil droplets can create reconfigurable passageways shuttling biomolecules across liposomal compartments.

Controllable and reversible transmembrane transport is a fundamental challenge in building synthetic cells. Here, interfacial energy-mediated bulk transport across artificial cell membranes is developed to mimic a rudimentary form of endocytosis- and exocytosis-like behaviors, facilitating the shuttling of biomolecules such as enzyme substrates, ions and nucleic acids.

The characterization of light irradiation for intensified flow reactors extends beyond the determination of photon fluxes, requiring the precise determination of optical path lengths. Here the authors introduce a systematic workflow that integrates radiometry, ray-tracing simulations and actinometry to obtain these system parameters.

Switching between liquid capture and release is important in handling various liquids. Here the authors present connected polyhedral frames that form a network of units that capture or release liquid that is readily switchable locally, dynamically and reversibly, thus functioning as a versatile fluidic processor.

Efficiently separating high-value targets with small structural differences in liquids is important to the chemical industry. Here the authors develop a metal–organic framework-based membrane with engineered topologic defects for accurate and prolonged sieving of species with molecular weights below 350 g mol⁻¹.

Victor Zavala and Alexander Smith discuss how functionality and efficiency of complex living and engineered systems are related to their shape.