SDx Tethered Membranes

Ready to use tethered membranes
Membrane and ion channel research
Direct readout of membrane resistance and capacitance
Patented Ionic Reservoir
Technical collaboration for studying your channel with tethered membranes

Tethered Bilayer Lipid Membranes (t-BLM)

Tethered membranes are lipid bilayers that have been chemically attached to a thin gold film that acts as an electrode.

Between the membrane and the gold film as part of the covalent structure of the membrane lipids is a hydrophilic layer (an ion reservoir) that mimics the interior of a cell allowing the sensitive detection of changes in the electrical properties of the membrane as a result of insertion of channels and the exposure of those channels to chemicals that affect the channel conduction.

SDx Tethered Membranes provides ready to use bilayers with a variety of lipid compositions and tethered lipid monolayers for use with second layer lipids of your choice.

Ion channels peptides or proteins can be inserted into the bilayer from aqueous or ethanolic solution, from proteoliposomes or with mild detergents depending on the nature of the peptide or protein under evaluation.

The efficiency of insertion of proteins into the tethered membranes depends on the molecular size of the protein and the spacing of the tethered lipid bilayer.

Membranes are available with tethering ratios from 1% to 90% to allow the insertion efficiency and the stability to be optimized for particular proteins being studied.