Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 31: Posters: Membranes and Vesicles

BP 31.5: Poster

Donnerstag, 25. März 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Microarray device for local electric recording of planar lipid bilayers — •Theresa Kaufeld and Christoph F. Schmidt — Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Mechanosensitive ion channels play an important role in cell function. They are involved in cell communication and act as emergency release valves to regulate osmotic pressure in cells. In order to understand their function and gating behaviour they can be reconstituted in artificial lipid bilayers and examined with electrophysiological and optical techniques such as single-channel recording and light microscopy.

We have here designed a device for simultaneous electrical recording, fluorescence microscopy and optical trapping experiments to stimulate and characterize the opening of mechanosensitive channels. We form phospholipid bilayers on microfabricated porous silicon substrates because they combine the stability of solid supported membranes and the accessibility to both sides of the bilayer, which is necessary for electrical recordings. We produced a microchip for electrical recording using standard cleanroom techniques.

Apertures of micrometer size were etched into a silicon substrate forming porous microarrays. To electrically isolate the substrate, an oxide layer was grown by thermal oxidation. Integrated Ag/AgCl electrodes surrounding each microarray were fabricated by vapour deposition to make them individually addressable for electrical recordings and to be able to switch between the microarrays during the measurement.