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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Construction of Model Lipid Membranes Incorporating G-protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs)
Published on: February 5, 2022
Probing the function of ionotropic and G protein-coupled receptors in surface-confined membranes
Christophe Danelon1, Samuel Terrettaz, Olivier Guenat
1Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Polymers and Membranes, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
This article reports on recent electrical and optical techniques for investigating cellular signaling reactions in artificial and native membranes immobilized on solid supports. The first part describes the formation of planar artificial lipid bilayers on gold electrodes, which reveal giga-ohm electrical resistance and the insertion and characterization of ionotropic receptors therein. These membranes are suited to record a few or even single ion channels by impedance spectroscopy. Such tethered membranes on planar arrays of microelectrodes offer mechanically robust, long-lasting measuring devices to probe the influence of different chemistries on biologically important ionotropic receptors and therefore will have a future impact to probe the function of channel proteins in basic science and in biosensor applications. In a second part, we present complementary approaches to form inside-out native membrane sheets that are immobilized on micrometer-sized beads or across submicrometer-sized holes machined in a planar support. Because the native membrane sheets are plasma membranes detached from live cells, these approaches offer a unique possibility to investigate cellular signaling processes, such as those mediated by ionotropic or G protein-coupled receptors, with original composition of lipids and proteins.
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