Open AccessMicro- and Nanostructured Devices for the Investigation of Biomolecular Interactions
Author(s) -
Christophe Danelon,
M Jenke,
Christoph Schreiter,
Gyu Man Kim,
Jean-Baptiste Perez,
Christian Santschi,
Jürgen Brugger,
Horst Vogel
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
chimia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.387
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2673-2424
pISSN - 0009-4293
DOI - 10.2533/chimia.2006.754
Subject(s) - biochip , membrane , nanotechnology , ion channel , microfluidics , vesicle , biophysics , cytosol , chemistry , membrane protein , materials science , fluorescence , biosensor , receptor , biochemistry , biology , physics , quantum mechanics , enzyme
Cell membrane receptors and ion channels are essential in many different cellular processes. To analyze the activity of membrane proteins in vesicles and biological cells, we fabricated micro-nano structured chips, enabling the application of electro physiology and fluorescence-based techniques. A SU-8 biochip was developed to simultaneously micromanipulate and investigate optically and electrically individual vesicles in a microfluidic channel. Lipid vesicles were transported, positioned by electrophoretic movement on a micrometer sized aperture, and fused to form a planar suspended membrane, which is suited to study ion channel activity. Aiming to investigate G protein coupled receptor signaling pathways in native-like environment, we developed a method for producing well-Oriented planar cell membrane sheets on silicon films containing nanoaperture arrays. The accessibility of extracellular and cytosolic surfaces was demonstrated by targeting membrane constituents side-specifically with fluorescent markers. Our approach can be applied for studying membrane proteins from a large variety of cells and cellular or ganelles using chip-based screening assays.