Ion-transporting Supported and Tethered Lipid Bilayers that Incorporate Biological Membrane Transport Proteins.

International audienceRecent developments, however, have seen the use of model biomimetic membranes as more than an aid to understand biological function better and have now advanced to become a core engineered element in a new generation of biomimetic molecular devices. The challenge for any technology based on synthetic lipid membranes is device stability. Although challenging to engineer, good stability is usually achieved using lipid bilayers that are tethered to or supported by a substrate that may be nonporous (e.g., gold, silicon) or porous (e.g., polymer, gel), rather than using suspended lipid bilayers