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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Automated Lipid Bilayer Membrane Formation Using a Polydimethylsiloxane Thin Film
Published on: July 10, 2016
A gigaseal obtained with a self-assembled long-lifetime lipid bilayer on a single polyelectrolyte multilayer-filled
Kaori Sugihara1, János Vörös, Tomaso Zambelli
1Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
A lipid bilayer with gigaohm resistance was fabricated over a single 800 nm pore in a Si3N4 chip using 50 nm liposomes. The nanopore was prefilled with a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) that triggered the spontaneous fusion of the lipid vesicles. Pore-forming peptide melittin was incorporated in the bilayer, and single channel activities were monitored for a period of 2.5 weeks. The long lifetime of the system enabled the observation of the time-dependent stabilization effect of the melittin open state upon bias application.
