Graphene emerges as a versatile new surface to assemble model cell membranes mimicking those in the human body, with potential for applications in sensors for understanding biological processes, disease detection and drug screening. Writing in Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Manchester led by Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, and Dr Michael Hirtz at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), have demonstrated that membranes can be directly ‘written’ on to a graphene surface using a technique known as Lipid Dip-Pen Nanolithography (L-DPN). The human body contains 100 trillion cells, each of which is enveloped in a cell membrane which is essentially a phospholipid bi-layer membrane. These cell membranes have a plethora of proteins, ion channels and other molecules embedded in them, each performing vital functions. It is essential, therefore, to study and understand these systems, thereby enabling their application in areas such as bio-sensing, bio-catalysis and drug-delivery. Considering that it is difficult to accomplish this by studying live cells inside the human body, scientists have developed model cell membranes on surfaces outside the body, to study the systems and processes under more convenient and accessible conditions. Dr Vijayaraghavan’s team at Manchester and their collaborators at KIT have shown that graphene is an exciting new surface on
The post Direct ‘writing’ of artificial cell membranes on graphene has been published on Technology Org.
Similar news or articles:
Comments