Chapter Four - Formation of Planar Lipid Bilayer Membranes and Vesicles using Microfluidic Technology

Abstract

Abstract This chapter describes how microfluidic technology can be used to form two types of artificially reconstituted lipid bilayers: (i) planar lipid bilayers and (ii) lipid vesicles. These membranes are powerful tools for the functional analysis of membrane proteins, but have typically been prohibitively difficult to create. Here, several types of microfluidic techniques are introduced, including (i) a contact method by which a planar lipid bilayer membrane can be formed by contacting two lipid monolayers in an organic solvent, (ii) a blowing-vesicle method by which a planar lipid bilayer can be deformed into a vesicle via application of a pulse-jet flow, and (iii) a dynamic microarray technology by which monodisperse particles such as vesicles or beads can be trapped sequentially into trapping spots in an array and can be selectively released by applying an optical laser under a microscope. These devices may offer excellent abilities in the control of fluid flow, and thus are useful for the formation and manipulation of lipid bilayer membranes that can be applied in various research fields such as membrane protein analysis, artificial cell studies, and highly sensitive biosensors.