| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Thursday Sessions |
| Session BI+AS+SA-ThM |
| Session: | Synthesis and Processing of Biomaterials/Biologically Inspired Materials |
| Presenter: | Sally McArthur, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia |
| Authors: | S.L. McArthur, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia L. Askew, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The cell membrane encases and protects cellular components and plays an important role in transport, signalling and disease. Studying membrane behaviour is a challenging task due to the complexity and scale on which these processes occur. Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) have provided researchers with stable and reproducible platforms to recreate cell membrane environments. The planar structure of the model means a variety of patterning techniques can be employed to recreate membrane architecture on both a micro and nanoscale. In particular, pre-patterned substrates are of great interest as they eliminate complications associated with preserving membrane integrity during patterning. Plasma polymers provide a versatile method of creating thin films with a variety of different surface chemistries. In this work we explore the behaviour of plasma coatings in aqueous conditions and the use of plasma films for creating patterned SLBs using vesicle collapse. The results demonstrate that variations in plasma polymer chemistry can be used to control lipid bilayer formation and the locations of different lipid species. Characterisation of film behaviour and bilayer formation was conducted using a variety of techniques including ellipsometry, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), confocal microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS).