Patterning and composition arrays of supported lipid bilayers by microcontact printing

Fluid-supported lipid bilayers self-assemble on glass and SiO2 surfaces. We have found that it is also possible to assemble fluid bilayers on plasma-o xidized polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) surfaces. Furthermore, it is possible to transfer br print the supported bilayer from raised PDMS surfaces, such as are typically used for microcontact printing, to fresh glass surfaces cr eating a supported bilayer membrane replica of the patterned PDMS surface o n glass. These patterned islands of bilayer are fully fluid and indefinitel y stable under water. The pattern is erased upon addition of more vesicles leaving a continuous bilayer surface. By printing membrane islands of vario us sizes onto a glass surface that is prepatterned with a material that for ms permanent barriers to lateral diffusion and then backfilling the open re gion with vesicles, it is possible to create arbitrary concentration or com position arrays of membrane-associated components. These arrays may be usef ul for studies of membrane biophysics, for high throughput screening of com pounds that target membrane components, and for probing and possibly contro lling living cell-synthetic membrane interactions.