Biomimetic organic electrochemical transistors for measuring bacterial membrane disruption

• Grant number: 18/14801-9
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): October 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): March 29, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal researcher: Gregório Couto Faria
• Grantee: Priscila Cavassin
• Supervisor abroad: Roisin Owens
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Cambridge, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/24694-0 - A universal platform for fabricating organic electrochemical devices and its application in biosensing, BP.MS

Abstract

The discovery of novel antibiotic drugs has slowed severely in the past decades and the development of novel strategies for the search of new antimicrobials is urged. Bacterial membranes are a neglected but obvious target, due to substantial differences from mammalian membranes. Identifying compounds which disrupt bacterial membranes is very challenging due to the unavailability of a scalable and reliable technology to interface with model bacterial membranes. Lipid layers represent a simplified model for a bacterial membrane, and these unperturbed layers are highly electrically insulating. Once the membrane is disrupted this property drastically changes. Membrane disruption may be characterized by coupling with an electronic transducer, like an Organic Electrochemical Transistor (OECT). However, integrating a lipid membrane on the transistor is very challenging, due to the difficulties to functionalize the polymer channel with lipids membrane. This internship proposal aims at developing a platform to identify compounds that disrupt bacterial membranes, by using a liquid-liquid phase separated (LiPS) OECT. This novel architecture has been extensively explored by the student during the first part of this master project, and it allows the integration with lipid monolayers, generating robust assemblies at an organic/water interface on top of the transistor. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SU, HUI; LIU, HAN-YUAN; PAPPA, ANNA-MARIA; HIDALGO, TANIA CECILIA; CAVASSIN, PRISCILA; INAL, SAHIKA; OWENS, ROISIN M.; DANIEL, SUSAN. Facile Generation of Biomimetic-Supported Lipid Bilayers on Conducting Polymer Surfaces for Membrane Biosensing. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, v. 11, n. 47, p. 43799-43810, NOV 27 2019. Web of Science Citations: 1.

CAVASSIN, PRISCILA; PAPPA, ANNA-MARIA; PITSALIDIS, CHARALAMPOS; BARBOSA, HENRIQUE F. P.; COLUCCI, RENAN; SAEZ, JANIRE; TUCHMAN, YAAKOV; SALLEO, ALBERTO; FARIA, GREGORIO C.; OWENS, ROISIN M. Organic Transistors Incorporating Lipid Monolayers for Drug Interaction Studies. ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES, OCT 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.