Project Director

Sanchez-Diaz, Luis

Department Examiner

Dungey, Keenan

Department

Dept. of Physics, Geology, and Astronomy

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Lipid bilayers are the fundamental structural framework of cell membranes, providing cells with both protection from the environment and interaction with the surrounding environment. Experimental investigation of lipid bilayers and embedded protein channels often involves the formation of an artificial membrane within an electrical circuit. The focus of this project is to implement and verify the functionality of a lipid bilayer characterization technique known as the droplet interface bilayer (DIB), with emphasis on cost-effective system design. To achieve this, the amplifier and software from the ELEMENTS black lipid membrane (BLM) kit were repurposed to reduce the cost of implementing a lipid characterization system. The ELEMENTS kit is originally designed to perform an experiment known as the Montal-Mueller technique, in which a lipid membrane is formed across an aperture separating two compartments filled with electrolyte solution with electrodes connected to both sides to the circuit. The Montal-Mueller method enables measurement of membrane capacitance of a pure lipid membrane and conductance of membranes doped with channel proteins. The primary objective of this project is to verify the formation and functionality of droplet interface bilayers by measuring their membrane capacitance using instrumentation from the ELEMENTS BLM kit. This study demonstrates the feasibility of adapting existing tools for alternative bilayer formation techniques while maintaining reliable electrical characterization.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the ELEMENTS team, Serge Kaddoura and Alessandro Porro, who provided me with a free trial of their amplifier and materials to perform black lipid membrane experiments as well as feedback and support during experimentation. I would also like to thank our chemistry laboratory coordinator Ash Pietripaoli for always being willing to help me search our stockrooms for materials. Thank you to the scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratories who gave me the opportunity to participate in lipid bilayer electronic characterization research, John Katsaras and Pat Collier. Additionally, thank you to Peter Podar for teaching me how to perform droplet interface bilayer experiments and for helping me troubleshoot. Finally, thank you to my advisor, Luis Sanchez-Diaz, for personally funding much of this project and for supporting my academic and career goals over the past four years.

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

5-2026

Subject

Lipid bilayers; Cell membranes--Electrical properties; Bioelectric phenomena

Keyword

Lipid bilayer, membrane capacitance, droplet interface bilayer, electronic characterization

Discipline

Physics

Document Type

Theses

Extent

iv, 25 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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Physics Commons

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