Bubble-Assisted Re-Formation of Individual Lipid Bilayers in Arrayed Device

Abstract

This paper describes a method capable of individual and selective re-formation of ruptured BLMs (bilayer lipid membranes) by using air bubbles in arrayed devices. BLMs play an important role in membrane protein studies, biosensor applications, and drug screening. In such applications, data throughput is a key issue, but BLMs are easily ruptured by physical/electrical disturbance, which makes it difficult to operate a large BLM array. In this work, we propose a bubble-assisted BLM re-formation method: An aqueous phase is divided by a small air bubble covered with a lipid monolayer. After the bubble departed, the divided aqueous phases are brought into contact with the lipid monolayer, resulting in formation of BLM. This method enables selective BLM re-formation in a multichannel device. To verify individual and selective BLM re-formation using this method, we developed a 4ch bubble-assisted device and demonstrated repetitive BLM re-formation.