Sidewall electrode-chamber for lipid bilayer formation suitable for rapid access of odors to lipid membrane

This paper shows a fabrication of a shallow chamber device for formation of bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs). The chamber device is composed of microperforated polytetrafluoroethylene thin film, and two magnetic rings that work as both electrodes and the chamber walls. Comparing to conventional open chamber devices for BLM formation that is based on droplet contact method, our approach can reduce the water depth, and it becomes that much easier to access the BLM via liquid ab extra. We confirmed that the formed membrane was BLM using membrane protein that made nanopore in BLMs. In addition, gas chromatographic analyses implied that adsorption of odorant into the buffer solution was more effective at shallower water level than deep position. We expect that this shallow chamber is potentially useful for odorant sensing based on olfactory receptors reconstructed in BLMs.