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This paper describes a stimuli-responsive microfiber-bundle actuator that has hierarchical alignment from molecular scale to macroscopic scale. We succeeded in aligning the orientation of molecular scale polymer chains in the stimuli-responsive hydrogel microfiber, which enhances the shrinkage of axial direction of the microfiber. We also bundled the microfibers and constructed a macro-scale bundled...
This paper describes stimuli-responsive hydrogel microsprings (SR springs) for realizing multiple and complex actuation. SR springs, made of double network hydrogel of p(NIPAM-co-AAc) and calcium alginate, were continuously formed by using a bevel-tip capillary. The size, pitch and cross-sectional pattern of SR springs were variable by controlling flow rate, buoyancy force and laminar flow patterns...
This paper proposes a self-assembly method to construct a droplet interface bilayer (DIB) network. The DIB network has been developed for biological logical circuits or chemical microreactors, using incorporated membrane proteins. In this work, the DIB network was constructed by using multi-geometric Droplet-Boxes (DBs), which captured and stabilized an aqueous droplet in organic solvent. The multi-geometry...
This report describes preliminary results of a reconstitution and function of membrane proteins (flippases) into asymmetric lipid giant liposomes (GLs) that were prepared by deforming a planar asymmetric bilayer using a pulsed jet flow. Frist, we confirmed the expression of flippases on the baculovirus membrane by a western blot analysis. Next, we successfully reconstituted flippases into the asymmetric...
This paper proposes a cell pairing system that is capable of defining the number and the position of trapped cells by mechanically sliding the parylene rail films (PRF). The device can control the area of trapping sites of cells by sliding PRF on a SU-8 comb layer. This mechanism allows us to control the number as well as the order of lined-up cells. We successfully demonstrated lining up of three...
This paper describes a batch release technique for monodisperse liposomes immobilized on a substrate (Fig. 1). A single short-time pulsed voltage to the substrate induced detachment of the arrayed liposomes previously developed. Simultaneous release was observed shortly after the electrical stimulation. The release technique produced monodisperse and solvent-free liposomes freely suspended on the...
This paper aimed to develop a pendant liposome system that allows the access to both internal and external solutions of the formed liposomes. The access to the internal solution was achieved by a through-hole fabricated on the substrate, which was designed underneath the pendant-like, dome-shaped liposome. The formation of a uniform-size liposome array was based on our previous works that applied...
This paper describes a contactless manipulation system for giant liposomes in an aqueous flow by negative dielectrophoresis (nDEP). The system consists of 2 pairs of comb electrodes that face each other across a perpendicular channel. This design allows an nDEP force to be focused at the center of the gap of the electrodes and the liposomes to align in lines without contacting either the electrodes...
This paper describes the preparation of a cell-sized vesicle containing small vesicles from a two-planar lipid bilayer in a triple-well device using a pulsed jet flow. First, the size distribution of the cell-sized vesicles is estimated using a double-well device wherein a separator having a hole diameter of 100, 200, or 500 μm is mounted between the wells. Moreover, the small vesicles are successfully...
This paper describes microfluidic logic gates which use DNA and biological nanopores. Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) can pass through αHL, a biological nanopore, incorporated in bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs), whereas double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) cannot. In this study, these passing and non-passing phenomena were applied as the binary system and logic gates. Two types of ssDNA were used as inputs, while...
This paper describes a bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) chip capable of solution exchange. In the previous report, we successfully reconstituted α-hemolysin (αHL) in BLMs using droplets contacting method with an array device. For drug screening, solution exchange is required to test the effect of inhibitors or promoters for proteins. In this study, we attempted to exchange the solution in a droplet...
In this paper we propose an efficient tweezing methodology for liposome using positive-dielectrophoresis (pDEP). These DEP-based tweezers consist of a round-shaped glass-capillary equipped with two thin Au film electrodes. The electrodes are fabricated using a double side shadow mask (DSSM) technique. This very simple process enables low-cost and reliable fabrication. Using the DEP-based tweezers,...
This work presents two important technologies integrated in our uniform-size liposome array platform (Fig. 1a) to realize an artificial cell array system. One is the effective encapsulation of small objects in the arrayed liposomes (Fig. 1b top), making use of the electrospray deposition technique also used for the lipid patterning. The target nanobeads were selectively patterned on the lipid and...
This paper describes simultaneou us 16 channels ion-channel recordings through membrane proteins reconstituted in bilayer lipid membrannes (BLMs) as shown in Figure 1. Although multiple ion-channel recording is necessary for high-throughput screening (HTS) of drug [1], there are no reports of such systems as far as the authors are aware. We have developed several strategies to construct BLMs arrray...
This paper describes a methodology that realizes uniformly-sized liposome arrays with gentle hydration. The system consists of a dried lipid pattern on a substrate that is a micropatterned polymer thin film on an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass slide. An electrospray deposition (ESD) method was applied to obtain the lipid patterning at the polymer pattern where the ITO surface was exposed. With a simple...
This letter describes the integration of an electrical connection onto a lipid bilayer membrane microchip for the electrical detection/regulation of transmembrane phenomena together with fluorescence monitoring. Arrayed microchambers with a volume of 3 pL were fabricated within a poly(dimethyl siloxane) microfluidic device, and electrical access was achieved by designing channels adjacent to the chambers...
This paper describes a microfluidic device for a high through-put ion channel recordings, in which planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) are spanning across a nanometer-sized poly(p-xylylene) (parylene) pore (Figure 1). To make the nanopore, a micrometer-sized pore of parylene was prepared by photolithography, and then parylene was additionally deposited on to the micropore with the isotropic vaporization...
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