Patterning hybrid surfaces of proteins and supported lipid bilayers

Two methods for patterning surfaces with supported lipid bilayers and immobilized protein are described. First, proteins are used to fabricate corrals for supported lipid bilayers. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamps are used to deposit arbitrarily shaped patterns of thin layers of immobilized protein onto glass surfaces. This is followed by vesicle fusion into the regions that are not coated with proteins. Second, supported bilayer membranes are blotted to remove patterned regions of the membrane,(1) and the blotted regions are filled in or caulked with protein from solution. In both cases, the lipid bilayer regions exhibit lateral fluidity, but each region is confined or corralled by the protein. These two methods can be combined and used iteratively to create arrays with increasing lateral complexity in both the fixed protein and mobile-supported membrane regions for biophysical studies or cell-based assays.