Figure 1.

Overview of the engineered tethered membrane, model, and measured and predicted current I(t). The Electronics block represents the electronic system, which produces the drive potential between the electrode and counter electrode, and records the current response I(t). The test chamber contains the synthetic tethered membrane. The tethered membrane layer is composed of the lipid components: zwitterionic DphPC (C20 diphytanyl-ether-glycerophosphatidylcholine) (shaded), C20 diphytanyl-diglyceride ether (open), and benzyl disulfide diphytanyl bis-tetra-ethyleneglycol (solid). Spacer molecules (i.e., benzyl disulfide tetra-ethyleneglycol) are used to control the spacing between the tethered lipids (cross-hatch fill). The mobile lipid layer (square fill) is composed of the DphPC lipids. For the 100% tether density, the membrane is composed of a membrane-spanning lipid (structure provided in Krishna et al. (19)) with no spacer molecules. The tethered membrane does not contain any ion channels; therefore, all current passing through the tethered membrane takes place via conducting aqueous pores with an electrical conductance denoted by G_p.