Fluid and highly curved model membranes on vertical nanowire arrays

On the interactions between RNA and titrateable lipid layers: implications for RNA delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Characterising the interaction between cationic ionisable lipids (CIL) and nucleic acids (NAs) is key to understanding the process of RNA lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formation and release of NAs from LNPs. Here, we have used different surface techniques to reveal the effect of pH and NA type on the interaction with a model system of DOPC and the CIL DLin-MC3-DMA (MC3). At only 5% MC3, differences in the structure and dynamics of the lipid layer were observed. Both pH and %MC3 were shown to affect the absorption behaviour of erythropoietin mRNA, polyadenylic acid (polyA) and polyuridylic acid (polyU). The adsorbed amount of all studied NAs was found to increase with decreasing pH and increasing %MC3 but with different effects on the lipid layer, which could be linked to the NA secondary structure. For polyA at pH 6, adsorption to the surface of the layer was observed, whereas for other conditions and NAs, penetration of the NA into the layer resulted in the formation of a multilayer structure. By comparison to simulations excluding the secondary structure, differences in adsorption behaviours between polyA and polyU could be observed, indicating that the NA's secondary structure also affected the MC3-NA interactions.

Pulmonary toxicity and translocation of gallium phosphide nanowires to secondary organs following pulmonary exposure in mice

BACKGROUND

III-V semiconductor nanowires are envisioned as being integrated in optoelectronic devices in the near future. However, the perspective of mass production of these nanowires raises concern for human safety due to their asbestos- and carbon nanotube-like properties, including their high aspect ratio shape. Indeed, III-V nanowires have similar dimensions as Mitsui-7 multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which induce lung cancer by inhalation in rats. It is therefore urgent to investigate the toxicological effects following lung exposure to III-V nanowires prior to their use in industrial production, which entails risk of human exposure. Here, female C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 2, 6, and 18 µg (0.12, 0.35 and 1.1 mg/kg bw) of gallium phosphide (III-V) nanowires (99 nm diameter, 3.7 μm length) by intratracheal instillation and the toxicity was investigated 1, 3, 28 days and 3 months after exposure. Mitsui-7 multi-walled carbon nanotubes and carbon black Printex 90 nanoparticles were used as benchmark nanomaterials.

RESULTS

Gallium phosphide nanowires induced genotoxicity in bronchoalveolar lavage cells and acute inflammation with eosinophilia observable both in bronchoalveolar lavage and lung tissue (1 and 3 days post-exposure). The inflammatory response was comparable to the response following exposure to Mitsui-7 multi-walled carbon nanotubes at similar dose levels. The nanowires underwent partial dissolution in the lung resulting in thinner nanowires, with an estimated in vivo half-life of 3 months. Despite the partial dissolution, nanowires were detected in lung, liver, spleen, kidney, uterus and brain 3 months after exposure.

CONCLUSION

Pulmonary exposure to gallium phosphide nanowires caused similar toxicological effects as the multi-walled carbon nanotube Mitsui-7.

Structural insights on ionizable Dlin-MC3-DMA lipids in DOPC layers by combining accurate atomistic force fields, molecular dynamics simulations and neutron reflectivity

Ionizable lipids such as the promising Dlin-MC3-DMA (MC3) are essential for the successful design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as drug delivery agents. Combining molecular dynamics simulations with experimental data, such as neutron reflectivity experiments and other scattering techniques, is essential to provide insights into the internal structure of LNPs, which is not fully understood to date. However, the accuracy of the simulations relies on the choice of force field parameters and high-quality experimental data is indispensable to verify the parametrization. For MC3, different parameterizations in combination with the CHARMM and the Slipids force fields have recently emerged. Here, we complement the existing efforts by providing parameters for cationic and neutral MC3 compatible with the AMBER Lipid17 force field. Subsequently, we carefully assess the accuracy of the different force fields by providing a direct comparison to neutron reflectivity experiments of mixed lipid bilayers consisting of MC3 and DOPC at different pHs. At low pH (cationic MC3) and at high pH (neutral MC3) the newly developed MC3 parameters in combination with AMBER Lipid17 for DOPC give good agreement with the experiments. Overall, the agreement is similar compared to the Park-Im parameters for MC3 in combination with the CHARMM36 force field for DOPC. The Ermilova-Swenson MC3 parameters in combination with the Slipids force field underestimate the bilayer thickness. While the distribution of cationic MC3 is very similar, the different force fields for neutral MC3 reveal distinct differences ranging from strong accumulation in the membrane center (current MC3/AMBER Lipid17 DOPC), over mild accumulation (Park-Im MC3/CHARMM36 DOPC) to surface accumulation (Ermilova-Swenson MC3/Slipids DOPC). These pronounced differences highlight the importance of accurate force field parameters and their experimental validation.

Structural Characterization of Nanoparticle-Supported Lipid Bilayer Arrays by Grazing Incidence X-ray and Neutron Scattering

Arrays of nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers (nanoSLB) are lipid-coated nanopatterned interfaces that provide a platform to study curved model biological membranes using surface-sensitive techniques. We combined scattering techniques with direct imaging, to gain access to sub-nanometer scale structural information on stable nanoparticle monolayers assembled on silicon crystals in a noncovalent manner using a Langmuir-Schaefer deposition. The structure of supported lipid bilayers formed on the nanoparticle arrays via vesicle fusion was investigated using a combination of grazing incidence X-ray and neutron scattering techniques complemented by fluorescence microscopy imaging. Ordered nanoparticle assemblies were shown to be suitable and stable substrates for the formation of curved and fluid lipid bilayers that retained lateral mobility, as shown by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and quartz crystal microbalance measurements. Neutron reflectometry revealed the formation of high-coverage lipid bilayers around the spherical particles together with a flat lipid bilayer on the substrate below the nanoparticles. The presence of coexisting flat and curved supported lipid bilayers on the same substrate, combined with the sub-nanometer accuracy and isotopic sensitivity of grazing incidence neutron scattering, provides a promising novel approach to investigate curvature-dependent membrane phenomena on supported lipid bilayers.

Single-Molecule Trapping and Measurement in a Nanostructured Lipid Bilayer System

The repulsive electrostatic force between a biomolecule and a like-charged surface can be geometrically tailored to create spatial traps for charged molecules in solution. Using a parallel-plate system composed of silicon dioxide surfaces, we recently demonstrated single-molecule trapping and high precision molecular charge measurements in a nanostructured free energy landscape. Here we show that surfaces coated with charged lipid bilayers provide a system with tunable surface properties for molecular electrometry experiments. Working with molecular species whose effective charge and geometry are well-defined, we demonstrate the ability to quantitatively probe the electrical charge density of a supported lipid bilayer. Our findings indicate that the fraction of charged lipids in nanoslit lipid bilayers can be significantly different from that in the precursor lipid mixtures used to generate them. We also explore the temporal stability of bilayer properties in nanofluidic systems. Beyond their relevance in molecular measurement, such experimental systems offer the opportunity to examine lipid bilayer formation and wetting dynamics on nanostructured surfaces.

Tutorial: using nanoneedles for intracellular delivery

Intracellular delivery of advanced therapeutics, including biologicals and supramolecular agents, is complex because of the natural biological barriers that have evolved to protect the cell. Efficient delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids, proteins, peptides and nanoparticles is crucial for clinical adoption of emerging technologies that can benefit disease treatment through gene and cell therapy. Nanoneedles are arrays of vertical high-aspect-ratio nanostructures that can precisely manipulate complex processes at the cell interface, enabling effective intracellular delivery. This emerging technology has already enabled the development of efficient and non-destructive routes for direct access to intracellular environments and delivery of cell-impermeant payloads. However, successful implementation of this technology requires knowledge of several scientific fields, making it complex to access and adopt by researchers who are not directly involved in developing nanoneedle platforms. This presents an obstacle to the widespread adoption of nanoneedle technologies for drug delivery. This tutorial aims to equip researchers with the knowledge required to develop a nanoinjection workflow. It discusses the selection of nanoneedle devices, approaches for cargo loading and strategies for interfacing to biological systems and summarises an array of bioassays that can be used to evaluate the efficacy of intracellular delivery.

High-Aspect-Ratio Nanostructured Surfaces as Biological Metamaterials

Materials patterned with high-aspect-ratio nanostructures have features on similar length scales to cellular components. These surfaces are an extreme topography on the cellular level and have become useful tools for perturbing and sensing the cellular environment. Motivation comes from the ability of high-aspect-ratio nanostructures to deliver cargoes into cells and tissues, access the intracellular environment, and control cell behavior. These structures directly perturb cells' ability to sense and respond to external forces, influencing cell fate, and enabling new mechanistic studies. Through careful design of their nanoscale structure, these systems act as biological metamaterials, eliciting unusual biological responses. While predominantly used to interface eukaryotic cells, there is growing interest in nonanimal and prokaryotic cell interfacing. Both experimental and theoretical studies have attempted to develop a mechanistic understanding for the observed behaviors, predominantly focusing on the cell-nanostructure interface. This review considers how high-aspect-ratio nanostructured surfaces are used to both stimulate and sense biological systems.

Single-Molecule Detection with Lightguiding Nanowires: Determination of Protein Concentration and Diffusivity in Supported Lipid Bilayers

Determining the surface concentration and diffusivity of cell-membrane-bound molecules is central to the understanding of numerous important biochemical processes taking place at cell membranes. Here we use the high aspect ratio and lightguiding properties of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) to detect the presence of single freely diffusing proteins bound to a lipid bilayer covering the NW surface. Simultaneous observation of light-emission dynamics of hundreds of individual NWs occurring on the time scale of only a few seconds is interpreted using analytical models and employed to determine both surface concentration and diffusivity of cholera toxin subunit B (CTxB) bound to GM1 gangliosides in supported lipid bilayer (SLB) at surface concentrations down to below one CTxB per μm². In particular, a decrease in diffusivity was observed with increasing GM1 content in the SLB, suggesting increasing multivalent binding of CTxB to GM1. The lightguiding capability of the NWs makes the method compatible with conventional epifluorescence microscopy, and it is shown to work well for both photostable and photosensitive dyes. These features make the concept an interesting complement to existing techniques for studying the diffusivity of low-abundance cell-membrane-bound molecules, expanding the rapidly growing use of semiconductor NWs in various bioanalytical sensor applications and live cell studies.

Biosensing using arrays of vertical semiconductor nanowires: mechanosensing and biomarker detection

Due to their high aspect ratio and increased surface-to-foot-print area, arrays of vertical semiconductor nanowires are used in numerous biological applications, such as cell transfection and biosensing. Here we focus on two specific valuable biosensing approaches that, so far, have received relatively limited attention in terms of their potential capabilities: cellular mechanosensing and lightguiding-induced enhanced fluorescence detection. Although proposed a decade ago, these two applications for using vertical nanowire arrays have only very recently achieved significant breakthroughs, both in terms of understanding their fundamental phenomena, and in the ease of their implementation. We review the status of the field in these areas and describe significant findings and potential future directions.

Nanowires for Biosensing: Lightguiding of Fluorescence as a Function of Diameter and Wavelength

Semiconductor nanowires can act as nanoscaled optical fibers, enabling them to guide and concentrate light emitted by surface-bound fluorophores, potentially enhancing the sensitivity of optical biosensing. While parameters such as the nanowire geometry and the fluorophore wavelength can be expected to strongly influence this lightguiding effect, no detailed description of their effect on in-coupling of fluorescent emission is available to date. Here, we use confocal imaging to quantify the lightguiding effect in GaP nanowires as a function of nanowire geometry and light wavelength. Using a combination of finite-difference time-domain simulations and analytical approaches, we identify the role of multiple waveguide modes for the observed lightguiding. The normalized frequency parameter, based on the step-index approximation, predicts the lightguiding ability of the nanowires as a function of diameter and fluorophore wavelength, providing a useful guide for the design of optical biosensors based on nanowires.

Morphology of living cells cultured on nanowire arrays with varying nanowire densities and diameters

Vertical nanowire arrays are increasingly investigated for their applications in steering cell behavior. The geometry of the array is an important parameter, which influences the morphology and adhesion of cells. Here, we investigate the effects of array geometry on the morphology of MCF7 cancer cells and MCF10A normal-like epithelial cells. Different gallium phosphide nanowire array-geometries were produced by varying the nanowire density and diameter. Our results show that the cell size is smaller on nanowires compared to flat gallium phosphide. The cell area decreases with increasing the nanowire density on the substrate. We observed an effect of the nanowire diameter on MCF10A cells, with a decreased cell area on 40 nm diameter nanowires, compared to 60 and 80 nm diameter nanowires in high-density arrays. The focal adhesion morphology depends on the extent to which cells are contacting the substrate. For low nanowire densities and diameters, cells are lying on the substrate and we observed large focal adhesions at the cell edges. In contrast, for high nanowire densities and diameters, cells are lying on top of the nanowires and we observed point-like focal adhesions distributed over the whole cell. Our results constitute a step towards the ability to fine-tune cell behavior on nanowire arrays.

Self-Assembly of Ultralong Aligned Dipeptide Single Crystals

Oriented arrangement of single crystals plays a key role in improving the performance of their functional devices. Herein we describe a method for the exceptionally fast fabrication (mm/min) of ultralong aligned dipeptide single crystals (several centimeters). It combines an induced nucleation step with a continuous withdrawal of substrate, leading to specific evaporation/composition conditions at a three-phase contact line, which makes the growth process controllable. These aligned dipeptide fibers possess a uniform cross section with active optical waveguiding properties that can be used as waveguiding materials. The approach provides guidance for the controlled arrangement of organic single crystals, a family of materials with considerable potential applications in large-scale functional devices.

Disassembly of Dipeptide Single Crystals Can Transform the Lipid Membrane into a Network

Coupling between cytoskeleton and membranes is critical to cell movement as well as organelle formation. Here, we demonstrate that self-assembled single crystals of a dipeptide, diphenylalanine (FF), can interact with liposomes to form cytoskeleton-like structures. Under a physiological condition, disassembly of FF crystals deforms and translocates supported lipid membrane. The system exhibits similar dynamic characteristics to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) network in cells. This bottom-up system thus indicates that external matter can participate in the deformation of liposomes, and disassembly of the nanostructures enables a system with distinct dynamic behaviors.

Non-lamellar lipid assembly at interfaces: controlling layer structure by responsive nanogel particles

Biological membranes do not only occur as planar bilayer structures, but depending on the lipid composition, can also curve into intriguing three-dimensional structures. In order to fully understand the biological implications as well as to reveal the full potential for applications, e.g. for drug delivery and other biomedical devices, of such structures, well-defined model systems are required. Here, we discuss the formation of lipid non-lamellar liquid crystalline (LC) surface layers spin-coated from the constituting lipids followed by hydration of the lipid layer. We demonstrate that hybrid lipid polymer films can be formed with different properties compared with the neat lipid LC layers. The nanostructure and morphologies of the lipid films formed reflect those in the bulk. Most notably, mixed lipid layers, which are composed of glycerol monooleate and diglycerol monooleate with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) nanogels, can form films of reverse cubic phases that are capable of responding to temperature stimulus. Owing to the presence of the nanogel particles, changing the temperature not only regulates the hydration of the cubic phase lipid films, but also the lateral organization of the lipid domains within the lipid self-assembled film. This opens up the possibility for new nanostructured materials based on lipid-polymer responsive layers.

Versatile Bottom-Up Synthesis of Tethered Bilayer Lipid Membranes on Nanoelectronic Biosensor Devices

Interfacing nanoelectronic devices with cell membranes can enable multiplexed detection of fundamental biological processes (such as signal transduction, electrophysiology, and import/export control) even down to the single ion channel level, which can lead to a variety of applications in pharmacology and clinical diagnosis. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and control the chemical and electrical interface between the device and the lipid bilayer membrane. Here, we develop a simple bottom-up approach to assemble tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) on silicon wafers and glass slides, using a covalent tether attachment chemistry based on silane functionalization, followed by step-by-step stacking of two other functional molecular building blocks (oligo-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and lipid). A standard vesicle fusion process was used to complete the bilayer formation. The monolayer synthetic scheme includes three well-established chemical reactions: self-assembly, epoxy-amine reaction, and EDC/NHS cross-linking reaction. All three reactions are facile and simple and can be easily implemented in many research labs, on the basis of common, commercially available precursors using mild reaction conditions. The oligo-PEG acts as the hydrophilic spacer, a key role in the formation of a homogeneous bilayer membrane. To explore the broad applicability of this approach, we have further demonstrated the formation of tBLMs on three common classes of (nano)electronic biosensor devices: indium-tin oxide-coated glass, silicon nanoribbon devices, and high-density single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) networks on glass. More importantly, we incorporated alemethicin into tBLMs and realized the real-time recording of single ion channel activity with high sensitivity and high temporal resolution using the tBLMs/SWNT network transistor hybrid platform. This approach can provide a covalently bonded lipid coating on the oxide layer of nanoelectronic devices, which will enable a variety of applications in the emerging field of nanoelectronic interfaces to electrophysiology.

Soft nanostructured films for directing the assembly of functional materials

Lipids are a class of biological small molecules with hydrophilic and hydrophobic constituents forming the structural membranes in cells. Over the past century an extensive understanding of lipid biology and biophysics has been developed illuminating lipids as an intricate, highly tunable, and hierarchical soft-matter system. In addition to serving as cell membrane models, lipids have been investigated as microphase separated structures in aqueous solutions. In terms of applications lipids have been realized as powerful structural motifs for the encapsulation and cellular delivery of genetic material. More recently, lipids have also revealed promise as thin film materials, exhibiting long-range periodic nano-scale order and tunable orientation. In this review we summarize the pertinent understanding of lipid nanostructure development in bulk aqueous systems followed by the current and potential perturbations to these results induced by introduction of a substrate. These effects are punctuated by a summary of our published results in the field of lipid thin films with added nucleic acids and key results introducing hard materials into lipid nanostructured substrates.

Dual-Functional Lipid Coating for the Nanopillar-Based Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells with High Purity and Efficiency

Clinical studies of circulating tumor cells (CTC) have stringent demands for high capture purity and high capture efficiency. Nanostructured surfaces have been shown to significantly increase the capture efficiency yet suffer from low capture purity. Here we introduce a dual-functional lipid coating on nanostructured surfaces. The lipid coating serves both as an effective passivation layer that helps prevent nonspecific cell adhesion and as a functionalized layer for antibody-based specific cell capture. In addition, the fluidity of lipid bilayers enables antibody clustering that enhances the cell-surface interaction for efficient cell capture. As a result, the lipid-coating method helps promote both the capture efficiency and capture purity of nanostructure-based CTC capture.

Electron microscopy imaging of proteins on gallium phosphide semiconductor nanowires

We have imaged GaP nanowires (NWs) incubated with human laminin, serum albumin (HSA), and blood plasma using both cryo-transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron based X-ray photoemission electron microscopy. This extensive imaging methodology simultaneously reveals structural, chemical and morphological details of individual nanowires and the adsorbed proteins. We found that the proteins bind to NWs, forming coronas with thicknesses close to the proteins' hydrodynamic diameters. We could directly image how laminin is extending from the NWs, maximizing the number of proteins bound to the NWs. NWs incubated with both laminin and HSA show protein coronas with a similar appearance to NWs incubated with laminin alone, indicating that the presence of HSA does not affect the laminin conformation on the NWs. In blood plasma, an intermediate sized corona around the NWs indicates a corona with a mixture of plasma proteins. The ability to directly visualize proteins on nanostructures in situ holds great promise for assessing the conformation and thickness of the protein corona, which is key to understanding and predicting the properties of engineered nanomaterials in a biological environment.

From immobilized cells to motile cells on a bed-of-nails: effects of vertical nanowire array density on cell behaviour

The field of vertical nanowire array-based applications in cell biology is growing rapidly and an increasing number of applications are being explored. These applications almost invariably rely on the physical properties of the nanowire arrays, creating a need for a better understanding of how their physical properties affect cell behaviour. Here, we investigate the effects of nanowire density on cell migration, division and morphology for murine fibroblasts. Our results show that few nanowires are sufficient to immobilize cells, while a high nanowire spatial density enables a ”bed-of-nails” regime, where cells reside on top of the nanowires and are fully motile. The presence of nanowires decreases the cell proliferation rate, even in the “bed-of-nails” regime. We show that the cell morphology strongly depends on the nanowire density. Cells cultured on low (0.1 μm⁻²) and medium (1 μm⁻²) density substrates exhibit an increased number of multi-nucleated cells and micronuclei. These were not observed in cells cultured on high nanowire density substrates (4 μm⁻²). The results offer important guidelines to minimize cell-function perturbations on nanowire arrays. Moreover, these findings offer the possibility to tune cell proliferation and migration independently by adjusting the nanowire density, which may have applications in drug testing.

Surface nanostructures for fluorescence probing of supported lipid bilayers on reflective substrates

The fluorescence interference contrast (FLIC) effect prevents the use of fluorescence techniques to probe the continuity and fluidity of supported lipid bilayers on reflective materials due to a lack of detectable fluorescence. Here we show that adding nanostructures onto reflective surfaces to locally confer a certain distance between the deposited fluorophores and the reflecting surface enables fluorescence detection on the nanostuctures. The nanostructures consist of either deposited nanoparticles or epitaxial nanowires directly grown on the substrate and are designed such that they can support a lipid bilayer. This simple method increases the fluorescence signal sufficiently to enable bilayer fluorescence detection and to observe the recovery of fluorescence after photobleaching in order to assess lipid bilayer formation on any reflective surface.

Non-lamellar lipid liquid crystalline structures at interfaces

The self-assembly of lipids leads to the formation of a rich variety of nano-structures, not only restricted to lipid bilayers, but also encompassing non-lamellar liquid crystalline structures, such as cubic, hexagonal, and sponge phases. These non-lamellar phases have been increasingly recognized as important for living systems, both in terms of providing compartmentalization and as regulators of biological activity. Consequently, they are of great interest for their potential as delivery systems in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic applications. The compartmentalizing nature of these phases features mono- or bicontinuous networks of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains. To utilize these non-lamellar liquid crystalline structures in biomedical devices for analyses and drug delivery, it is crucial to understand how they interact with and respond to different types of interfaces. Such non-lamellar interfacial layers can be used to entrap functional biomolecules that respond to lipid curvature as well as the confinement. It is also important to understand the structural changes of deposited lipid in relation to the corresponding bulk dispersions. They can be controlled by changing the lipid composition or by introducing components that can alter the curvature or by deposition on nano-structured surface, e.g. vertical nano-wire arrays. Progress in the area of liquid crystalline lipid based nanoparticles opens up new possibilities for the preparation of well-defined surface films with well-defined nano-structures. This review will focus on recent progress in the formation of non-lamellar dispersions and their interfacial properties at the solid/liquid and biologically relevant interfaces.

Interactions between semiconductor nanowires and living cells

Semiconductor nanowires are increasingly used for biological applications and their small dimensions make them a promising tool for sensing and manipulating cells with minimal perturbation. In order to interface cells with nanowires in a controlled fashion, it is essential to understand the interactions between nanowires and living cells. The present paper reviews current progress in the understanding of these interactions, with knowledge gathered from studies where living cells were interfaced with vertical nanowire arrays. The effect of nanowires on cells is reported in terms of viability, cell-nanowire interface morphology, cell behavior, changes in gene expression as well as cellular stress markers. Unexplored issues and unanswered questions are discussed.

Controlled rod nanostructured assembly of diphenylalanine and their optical waveguide properties

Diphenylalanine (FF) microrods were obtained by manipulating the fabrication conditions. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence (FL) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements revealed the molecular arrangement within the FF microrods, demonstrating similar secondary structure and molecular arrangement within FF microtubes and nanofibers. Accordingly, a possible mechanism was proposed, which may provide important guidance on the design and assembly manipulation of peptides and other biomolecules. Furthermore, characterization of a single FF microrod indicates that the FF microrod can act as an active optical waveguide material, allowing locally excited photoluminescence to propagate along the length of the microrod with coupling out at the microrod tips.

Detection of single ion channel activity with carbon nanotubes

Many processes in life are based on ion currents and membrane voltages controlled by a sophisticated and diverse family of membrane proteins (ion channels), which are comparable in size to the most advanced nanoelectronic components currently under development. Here we demonstrate an electrical assay of individual ion channel activity by measuring the dynamic opening and closing of the ion channel nanopores using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Two canonical dynamic ion channels (gramicidin A (gA) and alamethicin) and one static biological nanopore (α-hemolysin (α-HL)) were successfully incorporated into supported lipid bilayers (SLBs, an artificial cell membrane), which in turn were interfaced to the carbon nanotubes through a variety of polymer-cushion surface functionalization schemes. The ion channel current directly charges the quantum capacitance of a single nanotube in a network of purified semiconducting nanotubes. This work forms the foundation for a scalable, massively parallel architecture of 1d nanoelectronic devices interrogating electrophysiology at the single ion channel level.

Modulation of fluorescence signals from biomolecules along nanowires due to interaction of light with oriented nanostructures

High aspect ratio nanostructures have gained increasing interest as highly sensitive platforms for biosensing. Here, well-defined biofunctionalized vertical indium arsenide nanowires are used to map the interaction of light with nanowires depending on their orientation and the excitation wavelength. We show how nanowires act as antennas modifying the light distribution and the emitted fluorescence. This work highlights an important optical phenomenon in quantitative fluorescence studies and constitutes an important step for future studies using such nanostructures.

State of the art of nanoforest structures and their applications

Forest-like nanostructures, their syntheses, properties, and applications are reviewed.