Horizontal lipid bilayers formed by droplets contact method on patterned micro-droplets

Abstract

We developed horizontal lipid bilayers by the Droplets Contact Method (DCM). DCM is the easiest and most efficient method to form lipid bilayers. However, the lipid bilayers formed by our previous method could not be used for simultaneous electrophysiological and optical measurements because the bilayers are vertically oriented and therefore optically invisible. We performed DCM on patterned micro-droplets, so that the horizontal lipid bilayers were obtained. We visualized the lipid bilayer formation by an optical microscope and detected the current signals of the pore-forming membrane protein, α-hemolysin.