Membranes play a vital role in a variety of physiological processes. Recapitulating these processes outside of the cell will allow us to better understand them as well as design an entirely new class of materials that can sense, transport, or target important biological signals and molecules. In this talk, I will present our recent work using model membranes (ex. liposomes and polymersomes) and cell-free expression systems to (1) uncover the role of membrane mechanical properties on the folding, sorting, and activity of model membrane proteins and (2) design membrane-based nanoparticles for biosensing and therapeutic applications. Our approach, bridging synthetic biology techniques and model membrane assembly, provides an innovative yet simple method to probe the role of membrane composition and biophysical properties on protein dynamics and to advance the design of drug delivery carriers.