Nanometric Gap Structure with a Fluid Lipid Bilayer for the Selective Transport and Detection of Biological Molecules

The biological membrane is a natural biosensing platform that can detect specific molecules with extremely high sensitivity. We developed a biosensing methodology by combining a model biological membrane and a nanometer-sized gap structure on a glass substrate. The model membrane comprised lithographically patterned polymeric and fluid lipid bilayers. The polymeric bilayer was bonded to a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) sheet by using an adhesion layer with a defined thickness (lipid vesicles). Extruded lipid vesicles having a biotin moiety on the surface were used as the adhesion layer in conjunction with the biotin-streptavidin linkage. A gap structure was formed between the fluid bilayer and PDMS (nanogap junction). The thickness of the gap structure was several tens of nanometers, as determined by the thickness of the adhesion layer. The nanogap junction acted as a sensitive biosensing platform. From a mixture of proteins (cholera toxin and albumin), the target protein (cholera toxin) was selectively transported into the gap by the specific binding to a glycolipid (GM1) in the fluid bilayer and lateral diffusion. The target protein molecules were then detected with an elevated signal-to-noise ratio due to the reduced background noise in the nanometric gap. The combination of selective transport and reduced background noise drastically enhanced the sensitivity toward the target protein. The nanogap junction should have broad biomedical applications by realizing highly selective and sensitive biosensing in samples having diverse coexisting molecules.