AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI-WeA

Paper BI-WeA7
Facile Synthesis of Robust Nanostructured Thin Films Containing Highly Ordered Phospholipid Bilayer Assemblies and Transmembrane Proteins

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 4:00 pm, Room 2014

Session: Bio-Interfacial Modification and Bio-Immobilization II (Honoring Marcus Textor, ETH-Zürich for Substantial Contributions to the Field)
Presenter: G. Gupta, University of New Mexico
Authors: G. Gupta, University of New Mexico
P. Atanassov, University of New Mexico
G.P. Lopez, University of New Mexico
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We have synthesized a new generation of rugged hybrid organic/organic thin films that incorporate highly ordered supramolecular assemblies containing transporter proteins such as bacteriorhodopsin and transmembrane peptides. Such architectures have the potential to enable life-like qualities in new types of manufacturable thin film and membrane materials for a variety of technological applications. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to reveal the structure of the hybrid thin films containing 1, 2-dioleyl-sn-glycero-3-phospoethanolamine (DOPE), an unsaturated lipid, and 1, 2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), a saturated lipid in matrices of crosslinked silica obtained by sol-gel processing. While the d-spacing measured for DOPE containing films varied (from 35 Å to 48 Å) depending on the amount of DOPE added to the coating solution (10 wt% to 1 wt%), similar changes were not observed for the films containing the saturated lipid, DMPC (d-spacing ~43 Å). Incorporation of bacteriorhodopsin to the DOPE/silica coating solutions led to the formation of multi-lamellar vesicle-like structures within the thin films. Mild sonication of these solutions containing the purple membrane prior to coating led to the formation thin films with planar multi-lamellar structures that exhibit uniform d-spacing. The study further investigates the effects of incorporation of gramicidin and sonication on the structure of hybrid films and speculates on the eventual application of thin films prepared in this manner.