Lipid bilayer arrays: Cyclically formed and measured

Abstract

Artificial lipid bilayers have many uses. They are well established for scientific studies of reconstituted ion channels, used to host engineered pore proteins for sensing, and can potentially be applied in DNA sequencing. Droplet bilayers have significant technological potential for enabling many of these applications due to their compatibility with automation and array platforms. To further develop this potential, we have simplified the formation and electrical measurement of droplet bilayers using an apparatus that only requires fluid dispensation. We achieved simultaneous bilayer formation and measurement over a 32-element array with ~80% yield and no operator input following fluid addition. Cycling these arrays resulted in the formation and measurement of 96 out of 120 possible bilayers in 80 minutes, a sustainable rate that could significantly increase with automation and greater parallelization. This turn-key, high-yield approach to making artificial lipid bilayers requires no training, making the capability of creating and measuring lipid bilayers and ion channels accessible to a much wider audience. In addition, this approach is low-cost, parallelizable, and automatable, allowing high-throughput studies of ion channels and pore proteins in lipid bilayers for sensing or screening applications.