Researchers discovered that graphene is the perfect surface to arrange model cell membranes on in hopes of mimicking human cells.
The research team found the membranes could be directly "written" onto the graphene surface using a method called "Lipid Dip-Pen Nanolithography" (L-DPN), a University of Manchester news release reported.
All 100 billion of the cells in a human body are created within a cell membrane that also contains an abundance of "proteins, ion channels and other molecules."
The team hopes to use this new technique to better study what goes on inside the membrane, which could lead to breakthroughs in "bio-sensing, bio-catalysis and drug-delivery."
It is almost impossible to observe this process with live cells inside the human body, using an artificial model makes it much more accessible and easy to observe.
The Manchester team found graphene was an "exciting new surface" on which these models could be arranged for future observation and analysis.
"Firstly, the lipids spread uniformly on graphene to form high-quality membranes. Graphene has unique electronic properties; it is a semi-metal with tuneable conductivity," study leader Doctor Aravind Vijayaraghavan, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), said.
"When the lipids contain binding sites such as the enzyme called biotin, we show that it actively binds with a protein called streptavidin. Also, when we use charged lipids, there is charge transfer from the lipids into graphene which changes the doping level in graphene. All of these together can be exploited to produce new types of graphene/lipids based bio-sensors," Vijayaraghavan said.
The L-DPN technique uses an extremely sharp tip with an apex to "write" the membranes onto the graphene surface.
Dr. Michael Hirtz, another lead researcher from KIT, said the technique could be compared to writing on a piece of paper with a quill pen.
"The small size of the tip and the precision machine controlling it allows of course for much smaller patterns, smaller than cells, and even right down to the nanoscale," Hirtz said.
"By employing arrays of these tips multiple different mixtures of lipids can be written in parallel, allowing for sub-cellular sized patterns with diverse chemical composition."
