Planar lipid bilayer can be perceived as a simplified model of a cell membrane and can be used in measuring electrical properties of the said membrane, due to its electrical accessibility on both sides. Knowledge of these properties is of key importance for better understanding the phenomenon of cell membrane electroporation. While measuring electrical properties of a cell membrane is a time consuming process, due to having to rebuild the planar lipid bilayer for every measurement, a large number of measurements is required to provide accurate results.
For this purpose an easy-to-use user interface has been designed in MATLAB, that simplifies measurement parameter entry and requires minimal attendance of its user. The user interface is used as a controller for the Red Pitaya platform which in turn controls the injection pumps used to construct a planar lipid bilayer using the Montal-Mueller technique. By controlling Red Pitaya signal generator voltage and current signals can be generated, which in turn enables measurements of voltage excitation response and transmembrane current, from which electrical properties of a planar lipid bilayer can be calculated. Another goal of this thesis was to measure the response of the planar lipid bilayer to the excitation using the Red Pitaya platform, which was not possible at the time tests were performed, due to Red Pitaya not being able to generate a one-time signal and acquiring it simultaneously.
|
