13 research outputs found
Formation of Substrate-Supported Membranes from Mixtures of Long- and Short-Chain Phospholipids
Detection of single ion channel activity with carbon nanotubes
Many processes in life are based on ion currents and membrane voltages controlled by a sophisticated and diverse family of membrane proteins (ion channels), which are comparable in size to the most advanced nanoelectronic components currently under development. Here we demonstrate an electrical assay of individual ion channel activity by measuring the dynamic opening and closing of the ion channel nanopores using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Two canonical dynamic ion channels (gramicidin A (gA) and alamethicin) and one static biological nanopore (α-hemolysin (α-HL)) were successfully incorporated into supported lipid bilayers (SLBs, an artificial cell membrane), which in turn were interfaced to the carbon nanotubes through a variety of polymer-cushion surface functionalization schemes. The ion channel current directly charges the quantum capacitance of a single nanotube in a network of purified semiconducting nanotubes. This work forms the foundation for a scalable, massively parallel architecture of 1d nanoelectronic devices interrogating electrophysiology at the single ion channel level
Formation of Supported Lipid Bilayers by Vesicle Fusion: Effect of Deposition Temperature
A bioelectronic platform using a graphene-lipid bilayer interface
10.1021/nn1022582ACS Nano4127387-739