Nanoscale synthetic cell membranes developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory move researchers one step closer to creating artificial cells and manmade interfaces that could one day be used to treat diseases and perform other tasks at the cellular level. In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Nano Letters, Mitch Doktycz and colleagues at ORNL and the University of Tennessee outline a system of microarrays of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers. Using advanced fabrication methods, researchers can control the length, diameter, shape, position, orientation and chemical composition of the nanofibers. The nanofibers can be arranged to create tiny fluid-filled membrane structures that enable rapid diffusion-based mixing. The silicon-based fabrication techniques allow integration with electronic devices. "Integration with other microscale structures such as electronic systems would make possible communication between manmade devices and solution-based reaction systems," Doktycz said. "Copying the scale of biological systems will lead to an effective interface to them." Initially, this work was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Since 2002 funding has been provided by the National Institutes of Health.
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