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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Temperature-Controlled Assembly and Characterization of a Droplet Interface Bilayer
Published on: April 19, 2021
Formation of artificial lipid bilayers using droplet dielectrophoresis
Sara Aghdaei1, Mairi E Sandison, Michele Zagnoni
1School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Abstract:
We describe the formation of artificial bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) by the controlled, electrical manipulation of aqueous droplets immersed in a lipid-alkane solution. Droplet movement was generated using dielectrophoresis on planar microelectrodes covered in a thin insulator. Droplets, surrounded by lipid monolayers, were brought into contact and spontaneously formed a BLM. The method produced BLMs suitable for single-channel recording of membrane protein activity and the technique can be extended to create programmable BLM arrays and networks.
