Electrical Access to Lipid Bilayer Membrane Microchambers for Transmembrane Analysis

This letter describes the integration of an electrical connection onto a lipid bilayer membrane microchip for the electrical detection/regulation of transmembrane phenomena together with fluorescence monitoring. Arrayed microchambers with a volume of 3 pL were fabricated within a poly(dimethyl siloxane) microfluidic device, and electrical access was achieved by designing channels adjacent to the chambers that were bridged by gold patterns on a glass substrate. We succeeded in the formation of a lipid bilayer membrane at the mouth of the chamber and applied electrical potential to the membrane with the integrated component. We confirmed the reconstitution of a transmembrane nanopore protein into the formed lipid bilayer membrane by signal monitoring with the electrical connection.