Artificial organelles for enzymatic cofactor reduction

An artificial cell free organelle system comprising:

• a membrane having two sides comprising an inner surface in contact with an inner aqueous medium and an outer surface in contact with an outer aqueous medium;
• one or more photosynthetic proteins and one or more oxidoreductase proteins are vectorially embedded within and traversing the membrane;
• one or more first redox active cofactors;
• one or more second redox active cofactors;
• water, and
• a photon energy source;
• wherein:
• when one or more photons are directed on the one or more photosynthetic proteins, the photosynthetic proteins harvest the photon energy and catalyze the oxidation of at least one water molecule in the inner aqueous medium, generating 0.5 equivalents of oxygen gas and yielding up to two protons and two electrons per two photons that are transferred to an oxidized form of the first redox active cofactor, generating a reduced form of the first redox active cofactor;
• the accumulation of protons in the inner aqueous medium generates a proton concentration gradient between the inner aqueous medium and the outer aqueous medium;
• and
• the one or more oxidoreductase proteins pumps protons from the inner aqueous medium through the membrane to the outer aqueous medium to reduce the proton concentration gradient and simultaneously catalyzes the transfer of electrons from the reduced first redox cofactor to an oxidized form of the second redox active cofactor, generating a reduced form of the second redox active cofactor and an oxidized form of the first redox active cofactor.