Adsorption of functionalized biomembrane vesicles on crystalline surfaces monitored by FTIR- and Surface Enhanced FTIR Spectroscopy

A special class of integral membrane proteins are the ion channels. To use them for technical purposes they have to be transferred with their lipid surrounding onto artificial materials, i.e. crystals. In this study we used vesicles containing the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and porin. The first allows the ligand gated flow and the second allows the voltage gated flow of cations across the membrane. We used ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and surface enhanced FTIR techniques (SEIRA) to monitor the direct contact of the vesicles with the crystal.