UCLA

There are many applications for artificial lipid bilayers. These applications include ion channel studies, protein sensing with nanopores—especially DNA sequencing, and artificial lipid bilayers have the potential be applied for use in nanoparticle toxicity screening. Arrays of bilayers were used to test different nanoparticles for interactions in a variety of different environments including changes in particle concentration, ionic strength, pH, and presence of serum. Nanoparticles which were screened for interactions and potentially toxicity with our bilayer array platform included lanthanum oxide, cerium oxide, copper oxide, cobalt oxide, zinc oxide, indium oxide, erbium oxide, europium oxide, and gadolinium oxide. The data from our bilayer array platform also indicated that the ability of nanoparticles to destruct membranes largely depends on experimental conditions. In general, positive coating such as a low pH condition makes the particles more potent to membranes, and less positive coating such as a higher pH makes the particles more or less likely to interact and ultimately disrupt the bilayers. These results about nanoparticles’ ability to disrupt and break bilayers have a strong correlation literature regarding nanoparticle toxicity. This information can be used as a platform and starting point to study and predict how other nanoparticles or drugs may interact with bilayers.