Air-stable droplet interface bilayers on oil-infused surfaces

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400381111· OSTI ID:1132970

Boreyko, Jonathan B ^[1]; Polizos, Georgios ^[2]; Datskos, Panos G ^[1]; Sarles, Stephen A ^[1]; Collier, Pat ^[1]

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1. ORNL
2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) are versatile model membranes useful for synthetic biology and biosensing; however, to date they have always been confined to fluid reservoirs. Here, we demonstrate that when two or more water droplets collide on an oil-infused substrate, they exhibit non-coalescence due to the formation of a thin oil film that gets squeezed between the droplets from the bottom-up. We show that when phospholipids are included in the water droplets, a stable droplet interface bilayer forms between the non-coalescing water droplets. As with traditional oil-submerged DIBs, we were able to characterize ion channel transport by incorporating peptides into each droplet. Our findings reveal that droplet interface bilayers can function in air environments, which could potentially enable biosensing of atmospheric particulates.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1132970
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 21; ISSN 0027--8424
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English