Advances in lipid film based biosensors

• The methods of preparation and analytical applications of supported lipid films is reviewed.
• Advantage of nanostructures for preparation of sBLM based biosensors is demonstrated.
• Examples of sBLM based biosensors for detection various compounds is presented.
• Novel trends and perspectives of sBLMs in biosensor developments are discussed.

Since first report on formation stable free standing bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) in 1962 by Mueller et al. [1] these systems became very popular in modeling various membrane processes at molecular level, such as ionic transport, ligand-receptor interactions or lipid-protein interactions. Despite of advantage of BLM in respect of variation in lipid composition and their modifications by receptors and proteins, the work with these systems was rather difficult due to their limited stability. The situation has been considerably improved by introduction of supported bilayer lipid membranes (sBLM) in 1980 by Thompson et al. [2] for possible applications in biosensors. Recent advances in stabilization of supported lipid membranes, appearance of novel nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes has increased the number of publications on this topic. This review summarizes latest achievements in the field of biosensors utilizing sBLMs.