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Biological membranes are typically formed by lipid bilayer structures embedding pro- teins. This is text book knowledge. Now Ionovation is promoting “bilayer-measure- ments”. What are they talking about? Why is this good? And how can I speed up my science switching to “bilayers”? What more do I get from this compared to what I do now? Which new questions can be answered?
The bilayers we are talking about are artificial lipid membrane structures, easily created on a small hole in a plastic sheet (see picture). In this artificial membrane other membrane compounds can be em- bedded. These other compounds can be from native cells or organelles or just recombinant membrane proteins.
As has been shown in the literature (see Publications), the principle applies to membrane channels and transporters from both animal and plant cells and their organelles and takes away the limitation to certain cell lines which are suitable for a traditional electrophysiology approach. To make things easier and optimize reproducibility all compounds needed for bilayer formation, membrane fusion, protein reconstitution and the actual experiments will be made available from Ionovation.
Our artificial membrane is separating two compartments, both of which equipped with an electrode, and both fully accessible for liquid exchange. Just as in traditional electrophysiology (e.g. patch clamp) voltages can be applied and currents can be measured. Furthermore – with a glass wall in the compartments – high end optical detection devices can simultaneously monitor membrane related events, such as the binding or unbinding of e.g. fluorescence labelled compounds to the membrane. This novel high-content approach opens new options for the research on both the pathology and pharmacology of mem-brane-interfering agents and allows for new insights into membrane related drug discovery.
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