Monolithic Fabrication of a Lipid Bilayer Device Using Stereolithography

Droplet Contact Method (DCM) has widely been used to form a planar lipid bilayer between a pair of aqueous droplets for measurement of the functions of membrane proteins. However, the fabrication of DCM devices was laborious, and the integration of 3D structures into the devices remains difficult. To solve these issues, we have applied stereolithography to the fabrication of DCM devices. As a model structure, a DCM device integrated with microfluidic channels was monolithically fabricated, and a nanopore-forming protein
$\alpha$
-hemolysin was incorporated into the planar lipid bilayer while perfusing one of the droplets. We further compared several stereolithography materials to maximize the measurement performance.