Towards a practical chemoreceptive BLM sensor

The route to a practical sensor based on the physical chemistry offered by the BLM depends essentially on the solution of three different technical problems, viz. the production of stable, substrate-supported membranes, the incorporation of natural or synthetic receptors into these structures, and the 

The practical use of the BLM is severely handicapped by the delicate nature of the structure which is entirely dependent for its stability on hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals forces. In order to approach a solution to this difficulty, several methods have been developed to transfer the intact structure to a solid support. These are  

It is expected that a significant component of lipid membrane physical chemistry could be retained if the molecules were attached to a surface by bondable groups located at the end of the acyl chain. In this respect Kallury et al (31) from the Chemical Sensors Group at the University of Toronto has devised a route to yield silanized lipid. Studies of binding of this moiety to model silicon surfaces have so far proved to be particularly encouraging. 

The Chemical Sensors Group at the University of Toronto is grateful to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, The Ministry of the Environment, Province of Ontario, Defence Advanced Research Project Agency and Allied-Signal, Canada for support of their work. 

Ganong, The Nervous System (2nd edn.), Lange Medical Publications, Los Altos, California (1979). 

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