Swiss Soft Days 2022
Robert displayed his work on "Multiplexed Analyte Detection in Droplet Interface Bilayers"
Swiss Soft Days 2022
Alumni Pavillion, ETH Zurich, 20.10.2022
Title: Multiplexed Analyte Detection in Droplet Interface Bilayers
Authors: Robert Strutt, Simon F. Berlanda, Petra S. Dittrich
Abstract
Droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) are a powerful bottom-up synthetic biology technique for in vitro membrane formation. These biomimetic membranes enable investigation of critical biological membrane features, such as diverse lipid types, lipid asymmetry, and membrane proteins. In high nL volume DIBs, analytical techniques such as electrophysiology, UV and fluorescence spectroscopy can be performed. At this scale, shear forces can be utilized to manipulate droplets for membrane formation and separation. In this work, we have developed upon a platform for DIB separation and droplet sequestering and coupled this to a downstream high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) measurement. DIBs were formed with a cocktail of biologically relevant compounds broadly mimicking drug mixtures and molecular crowding, constituting a simple screen for assessing membrane permeable chemical space. The method can be modified for a simultaneous quantification of rate constants for the membrane permeable compounds within the mixture. With this strategy, we can enhance DIB models of biological transport phenomena by systematically adjusting detectable chemical complexity in volumes separated by membranes.