Stable lipid bilayers based on micro- and nano-fabrication

Methacrylate Polymer Scaffolding Enhances the Stability of Suspended Lipid Bilayers for Ion Channel Recordings and Biosensor Development

Black lipid membranes (BLMs) provide a synthetic environment that facilitates measurement of ion channel activity in diverse analytical platforms. The limited electrical, mechanical and temporal stabilities of BLMs pose a significant challenge to development of highly stable measurement platforms. Here, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and butyl methacrylate (BMA) were partitioned into BLMs and photopolymerized to create a cross-linked polymer scaffold in the bilayer lamella that dramatically improved BLM stability. The commercially available methacrylate monomers provide a simple, low cost, and broadly accessible approach for preparing highly stabilized BLMs useful for ion channel analytical platforms. When prepared on silane-modified glass microapertures, the resulting polymer scaffold-stabilized (PSS)-BLMs exhibited significantly improved lifetimes of 23 ± 9 to 40 ± 14 h and > 10-fold increase in mechanical stability, with breakdown potentials > 2000 mV attainable, depending on surface modification and polymer cross-link density. Additionally, the polymer scaffold exerted minimal perturbations to membrane electrical integrity as indicated by mean conductance measurements. When gramicidin A and α-hemolysin were reconstituted into PSS-BLMs, the ion channels retained function comparable to conventional BLMs. This approach is a key advance in the formation of stabilized BLMs and should be amenable to a wide range of receptor and ion channel functionalized platforms.

Shaped apertures in photoresist films enhance the lifetime and mechanical stability of suspended lipid bilayers

Planar lipid bilayers suspended in apertures provide a controlled environment for ion channel studies. However, short lifetimes and poor mechanical stability of suspended bilayers limit the experimental throughput of bilayer electrophysiology experiments. Although bilayers are more stable in smaller apertures, ion channel incorporation through vesicle fusion with the suspended bilayer becomes increasingly difficult. In an alternative bilayer stabilization approach, we have developed shaped apertures in SU8 photoresist that have tapered sidewalls and a minimum diameter between 60 and 100 μm. Bilayers formed at the thin tip of these shaped apertures, either with the painting or the folding method, display drastically increased lifetimes, typically >20 h, and mechanical stability, being able to withstand extensive perturbation of the buffer solution. Single-channel electrical recordings of the peptide alamethicin and of the proteoliposome-delivered potassium channel KcsA demonstrate channel conductance with low noise, made possible by the small capacitance of the 50 μm thick SU8 septum, which is only thinned around the aperture, and unimpeded proteoliposome fusion, enabled by the large aperture diameter. We anticipate that these shaped apertures with micrometer edge thickness can substantially enhance the throughput of channel characterization by bilayer lipid membrane electrophysiology, especially in combination with automated parallel bilayer platforms.

Decreased aperture surface energy enhances electrical, mechanical, and temporal stability of suspended lipid membranes

The development of next-generation transmembrane protein-based biosensors relies heavily on the use of black lipid membranes (BLMs); however, electrical, mechanical, and temporal instability of BLMs poses a limiting challenge to biosensor development. In this work, micrometer-sized glass apertures were modified with silanes of different chain length and fluorine composition, including 3-cyanopropyldimethychlorosilane (CPDCS), ethyldimethylchlorosilane (EDCS), n-octyldimethylchlorosilane (ODCS), (tridecafluoro-1, 1, 2, 2-tetrahydrooctyl)dimethylchlorosilane (PFDCS), or (heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)dimethylchlorosilane (PFDDCS), to explore the effect of substrate surface energy on BLM stability. Low energy silane-modified surfaces promoted enhanced lipid-substrate interactions that facilitate the formation of low-leakage, stable BLMs. The surface energies of silane-modified substrates were 30 ± 3, 16 ± 1, 14 ± 2, 11 ± 1, and 7.1 ± 2 mJ m(-2) for CDCS, EDCS, ODCS, PFDCS, and PFDDCS, respectively. Decreased surface energy directly correlated to improved electrical, mechanical, and temporal BLM stability. Amphiphobic perfluorinated surface modifiers yielded superior performance compared to traditional hydrocarbon modifiers in terms of stability and BLM formation, with only marginal effects on BLM membrane permeability. Leakage currents obtained for PFDCS and PFDDCS BLMs were elevated only 10-30%, though PFDDCS modification yielded >5-fold increase in electrical stability as indicated by breakdown voltage (> 2000 mV vs 418 ± 73 mV), and >25-fold increase in mechanical stability as indicated by air-water transfers (> 50 vs 2 ± 0.2) when compared to previously reported CPDCS modification. Importantly, the dramatically improved membrane stabilities were achieved with no deleterious effects on reconstituted ion channel function, as evidenced by α-hemolysin activity. Thus, this approach provides a simple, low cost, and broadly applicable alternative for BLM stabilization and should contribute significantly toward the development of next-generation ion-channel-functionalized biosensors.

Stem cells in microfluidics

Microfluidic techniques have been recently developed for cell-based assays. In microfluidic systems, the objective is for these microenvironments to mimic in vivo surroundings. With advantageous characteristics such as optical transparency and the capability for automating protocols, different types of cells can be cultured, screened, and monitored in real time to systematically investigate their morphology and functions under well-controlled microenvironments in response to various stimuli. Recently, the study of stem cells using microfluidic platforms has attracted considerable interest. Even though stem cells have been studied extensively using bench-top systems, an understanding of their behavior in in vivo-like microenvironments which stimulate cell proliferation and differentiation is still lacking. In this paper, recent cell studies using microfluidic systems are first introduced. The various miniature systems for cell culture, sorting and isolation, and stimulation are then systematically reviewed. The main focus of this review is on papers published in recent years studying stem cells by using microfluidic technology. This review aims to provide experts in microfluidics an overview of various microfluidic systems for stem cell research.