a Schematics of droplet spotting and formation of the droplet interface bilayer (not to scale). Left: nanoliter droplets are formed in a microfluidic T-junction from an aqueous solution and oil with phospholipids. Thereafter, the droplets are transferred via a capillary and spotted on a glass plate with individual rows of cavities in close proximity. Phospholipids are present in the oil phase and self-assemble at the droplet interface while transitioning the capillary. Right: the spotted droplets are connected via a droplet interface bilayer. With our spotting platform, we can vary the content of the droplet next to each other and form droplet networks, here designated with aqueous solution 1-3. In addition, the pore forming toxin alpha-hemolysin (α-HL) can be selectively added to allow exchange of small water-soluble molecules between droplets. The α-HL structure was obtained from the Protein Data Bank (rcsb.org)38. b Photograph of the T-junction for droplet formation. c Spotting of 10 µM FITC-dextran in PBS droplets. d Brightfield image of the droplets spotted in c. e Fluorescent image of the droplets spotted in c.
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