Brás, Eduardo João SilvaDomingues, CristianaChu, VirgíniaFernandes, Pedro Carlos de BarrosConde, João Pedro2021-09-062021-09-06202010.1016/j.jbiotec.2020.07.016http://hdl.handle.net/10437/12145Journal of BiotechnologyEnzymatic synthesis of biochemical commodities is of upmost importance as it represents a greener alternative to traditional chemical synthesis and provides easier downstream processing strategies compared to fermentation-based processes. A microfluidic system used to optimize the enzymatic production of both levodopa (L-DOPA) and dopamine in both single-step and multistep-reaction sequences with yield of approximately 30 % for L-DOPA production and 70 % for dopamine production is presented. The system for L-DOPA production was then up-scaled (780-fold increase) to a milliliter scale system by maintaining similar mass transport properties resulting in the same yield, space-time yield and biocatalyst yield as its microscale counterpart. The results obtained for yield and biocatalyst yield (351.7 mgL-DOPA mg−1Tyr h−1) were similar to what is reported in the literature for similar systems, however the space-time yield (0.806 mgL-DOPA L−1 h−1) was smaller. This work demonstrates a microfluidic bioreactor that can be used for complex optimizations that can be performed rapidly while reducing the consumption of reagents by immobilizing the catalyst on a carrier which can then be used in a packed-bed reactor, thus extending the enzyme life spanapplication/pdfengopenAccessBIOTECNOLOGIABIOQUÍMICAENZIMASDOPAMINALEVODOPABIOTECHNOLOGYBIOCHEMISTRYENZYMESDOPAMINELEVODOPAarticle