Incorporation of a Transmembrane Protein into a Supported 3D-Matrix of Liposomes for SPR Studies

Surface analytical tools as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) have become increasingly important in biomedical research since they offer high detection sensitivity compared to traditional biomedical methods. For the use of SPR as a biomedical research tool there is a need to immobilize the reactants to a solid sensor surface. It is nowadays fairly straightforward to immobilize various reactants and hydrophilic proteins to a solid sensor surface and SPR has successfully been used in several applications using such proteins when studying various protein interactions. When using SPR for the analysis of transmembrane proteins the immobilization onto the solid surface becomes more difficult. Transmembrane proteins are more sensitive to the surroundings and need to be incorporated into a structure where it can reside in a natural environment. Supported liposomes offer such environment. In this chapter a new method is presented where multilayers of such supported liposomes are used to immobilize transmembrane proteins onto a solid sensor surface which is suitable for use in SPR detection.