Journal
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 129, Issue 27, Pages 8650-8655Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/ja072292a
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- MRC [G0300122] Funding Source: UKRI
- Medical Research Council [G0300122] Funding Source: researchfish
- Medical Research Council [G0300122] Funding Source: Medline
- NEI NIH HHS [EY01650] Funding Source: Medline
- NIGMS NIH HHS [GM40162] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We form networks from aqueous droplets by submerging them in an oil/lipid mixture. When the droplets are joined together, the lipid monolayers surrounding them combine at the interface to form a robust lipid bilayer. Various protein channels and pores can incorporate into the droplet-interface bilayer (DIB), and the application of a potential with electrodes embedded within the droplets allows ionic currents to be driven across the interface and measured. By joining droplets in linear or branched geometries, functional bionetworks can be created. Although the interfaces between neighboring droplets comprise only single lipid bilayers, the structures of the networks are long-lived and robust. Indeed, a single droplet can be surgically excised from a network and replaced with a new droplet without rupturing adjacent DIBs. Networks of droplets can be powered with internal biobatteries that use ion gradients or the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin. Besides their interest as coupled protocells, the droplets can be used as devices for ultrastable bilayer recording with greatly reduced electrolyte volume, which will permit their use in rapid screening applications.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available