Sandia Corporation

California Institute of Technology

Other

Darryl Y Sasaki

Frances H Arnold

C Jeffrey Brinker

Douglas A Loy

Deborah H Charych

Carol S Ashley

Kenneth J Shea

Stacey A Yamanaka

Charles E Daitch

Daniel J Rush

Deborah Shnek

Tina A Waggoner

Julie A Last

Daniel Pack

The present invention is a self-assembling material comprised of stacks of lipid bilayers formed in a columnar structure, where the assembly process is mediated and regulated by chemical recognition events. The material, through the chemical recognition interactions, has a self-regulating system that corrects the radial size of the assembly creating a uniform diameter throughout most of the structure. The materials form and are stable in aqueous solution. These materials are useful as structural elements for the architecture of materials and components in nanotechnology, efficient light harvesting systems for optical sensing, chemical processing centers, and drug delivery vehicles.

Self-assembled lipid bilayer materials

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for the direct detection of analytes using color changes that occur in immobilized biopolymeric material in response to selective binding of analytes to their surface. In particular, the present invention provides methods and compositions related to the encapsulation of biopolymeric material into metal oxide glass using the sol-gel method.

Sol-gel matrices for direct colorimetric detection of analytes

A method is provided for molecularly imprinting the surface of a sol-gel material, by forming a solution comprised of a sol-gel material, a solvent, an imprinting molecule, and a functionalizing siloxane monomer of the form Si(OR).sub.3-n X.sub.n, wherein n is an integer between zero and three and X is a functional group capable of reacting with the imprinting molecule, evaporating the solvent, and removing the imprinting molecule to form the molecularly imprinted metal oxide sol-gel material. The use of metal oxide sol-gels allows the material porosity, pore size, density, surface area, hardness, electrostatic charge, polarity, optical density, and surface hydrophobicity to be tailored and be employed as sensors and in catalytic and separations operations.

Molecular receptors in metal oxide sol-gel materials prepared via

A method for preparing encapsulated lipid-bilayer materials in a silica matrix comprising preparing a silica sol, mixing a lipid-bilayer material in the silica sol and allowing the mixture to gel to form the encapsulated lipid-bilayer material. The mild processing conditions allow quantitative entrapment of pre-formed lipid-bilayer materials without modification to the material's spectral characteristics. The method allows for the immobilization of lipid membranes to surfaces. The encapsulated lipid-bilayer materials perform as sensitive optical sensors for the detection of analytes such as heavy metal ions and can be used as drug delivery systems and as separation devices.

Immobilized lipid-bilayer materials

An fluorescent metal-chelating amphiphile having the structure: ##STR1## wherein A is a hydrophobic fluorophore, X and Y are aliphatic hydrocarbons having from 9 to 25 carbon atoms, B is a hydrophilic spacer, C is a metal chelator, and L is either an ether or ester linkage. The fluorescent metal-chelating amphiphile is combined with a matrix lipid to form lipid-based sensors which provide fluorometric detection of metal ions in liquids.

Metal chelating lipids which are useful as sensors in fluorometric

Lipid-based metal sensor

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Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Darryl Y Sasaki