The activity of whole-cell biocatalysts is strongly compromised by the cell envelope, which is a permeability barrier against the diffusion of substrates and products. Although common chemical or physical permeabilization methods used in cultured cells enhance cell permeability, these methods inevitably add several extra processing steps after cell cultivation, as well as impede large scale processing. To increase membrane permeability and cellbound glutamate decarboxylase(GAD) activity of recombinant Escherichia coli(BL21(DE3)-p ET28a-gad B) cells without the need for an additional permeabilization step, we investigated the permeabilizing effects of adding cell wall synthesis inhibitors or surfactants to the culture media. Ampicillin was the most effective at improving cell-bound GAD activity of the BL21(DE3)-p ET28a-gad B, although it decreased the cell biomass yield. The best permeabilization effect was observed using an ampicillin concentration of 5 μg·ml-1. Using this concentration,the cell biomass did decrease by 40.58%, but the cell-bound GAD activity of BL21(DE3)-p ET28a-gad B and total cell-bound GAD activity per milliliter of culture was enhanced by 6.24- and 3.64-fold, respectively. Treatment of BL21(DE3)-p ET28a-gad B cells with 5 μg·ml-1ampicillin resulted in structural changes to the cell envelope,but did not substantially affect GAD expression. By entrapping the ampicillin-treated cells in an open pore gelation matrix, which is a polymer derived from polyvinyl alcohol(PVA), alginate, and boric acid, the transformation rate of γ-aminobutyric acid(GABA) at the 10 th cycle produced by immobilized and permeabilized cells remained 46% of the first cycle. GAD activity of the immobilized, permeabilized cells remained over 90% after30 days of storage at 4 °C. The activity of whole-cell biocatalysts is strongly compromised by the cell envelope, which is a barrier that is compromised by the cell envelope, these methods inevitably add several extra processing steps after cell cultivation, as well as impede large scale processing. To increase membrane permeability and cellbound glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity of recombinant Escherichia coli (BL21 (DE3) -p ET28a-gad B) cells without the need for an additional permeabilization step , we investigated the permeabilizing effects of cell wall synthesis inhibitors or surfactants to the culture media. Ampicillin was the most effective at improving cell-bound GAD activity of the BL21 (DE3) -p ET28a-gad B, although it decreased the cell biomass yield. The best permeabilization effect was observed using an ampicillin concentration of 5 μg · ml-1. Using this concentrat ion, the cell biomass did decrease by 40.58%, but the cell-bound GAD activity of BL21 (DE3) -p ET28a-gad B and total cell-bound GAD activity per milliliter of culture was enhanced by 6.24- and 3.64-fold, respectively. Treatment of BL21 (DE3) -p ET28a-gad B cells with 5 μg · ml-1 ampicillin resulted in structural changes to the cell envelope, but did not substantially affect GAD expression. By entrapping the ampicillin-treated cells in an open pore gelation matrix, which is a polymer derived from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), alginate, and boric acid, the transformation rate of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the 10 th cycle produced by immobilized and permeabilized cells remained 46% of the first cycle GAD activity of the immobilized, permeabilized cells remained over 90% after 30 days of storage at 4 ° C.