Membrane transistor with giant lipid vesicle touching a silicon chip

Lipid bilayers on silicon may become the matrix of future bioelectronic dev ices if the junction is sufficiently insulating. We touched the open gate o f a field-effect transistor with a preformed giant lipid vesicle and bound the membrane by means of polyelectrolyte interaction. The sheet resistance along the junction was 100 G Omega and the membrane resistance was above 10 0 G Omega at a contact at ea of 1000 mu m(2) The bilayer was fluid and smoo thly followed the surface profile of the chip. The compound lipid-silicon s tructure is suitable So couple semiconductor and electroactive proteins.