The Biomembrane Lab / Mayer Group

Research in the Biomembrane Lab focuses on transport and signaling processes across biological membranes. The goal of the group is to increase the molecular understanding of these processes and ultimately to employ the ensuing insight to diagnose and possibly treat human disease. We are particularly interested in ion channel proteins that are involved in Alzheimer’s disease and in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type I diabetes mellitus, as well as in transporter proteins that are responsible for resistance to chemotherapy in treatment of cancer.

Current research focuses on five main projects:

1. High-throughput profiling of ion channel activity in human lymphocytes as a biomarker for T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases
2. Chip-based transport assays of single multidrug resistance transporters
3. Screening for small molecules that inhibit neurotoxic ion channel activity by amyloid-beta (AB) peptides as a possible strategy to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
4. Nanopore-based sensing of biomolecular assemblies and artificial ion channels
5. Interactions of proteins and therapeutic drugs with biomembranes and lipid rafts

Research in the Biomembrane Lab is carried out in a multidisciplinary approach; we combine expertise in biochemistry, cell biology, and immunology with state-of-the art approaches in biophysics, electrophysiology, optical single molecule detection, and surface chemistry. The lab works in teams; current members include two postdoctoral researchers, four graduate students, and three undergraduate students.

For more information, please visit: http://biomembrane.engin.umich.edu/index.html

Recent Publications

21.     Mayer M., Kriebel J. K., Tosteson M. T., Whitesides G. M. “Microfabricated Teflon membranes for low-noise recordings of ion channels in planar lipid bilayers”, Biophys. J., 2003, 85, 2684-2695

22.     Yang J., Mayer M., Kriebel J. K., Garstecki P., Whitesides. G. M. “Self-assembled aggregates of IgGs as templates for the growth of clusters of gold nanoparticles”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2004, 43, 1555-1558

23.     Mayer M., Yang J., Gracias D., Whitesides G. M. “Micropatterned agarose gels for stamping arrays of proteins and gradients of proteins”, Proteomics, 2004, 4, 2366-2376

24.     Stevens M. M., Mayer M. (S.M.M. and M.M. contributed equally), Anderson D. G., Weibel D. B., Whitesides G. W., Langer R. “Direct patterning of mammalian cells onto porous tissue engineering substrates using agarose stamps”, Biomaterials, 2005, 26, 7636-7641

25.     DiLuzio W. R., Turner L., Mayer M., Garstecki P., Weibel D. B., Berg H. C., Whitesides G. M. „Escherichia coli „drive on the right“, Nature, 2005, 435, 1271-1274

26.     Weibel D. B., Garstecki P., Ryan D., DiLuzio W. R., Mayer M., Seto J. E., Whitesides G. M. “Microoxen: microorganisms to move microscale loads“, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 2005, 102, 11963-11967

27.     Estes D. J., Mayer M. “Giant liposomes in physiological buffer using electroformation in a flow-through setup”, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 2005, 1712, 152-160

28.     Majd S., Mayer M. “Hydrogel-stamping of arrays of supported lipid bilayers with varying lipid compositions for screening of drug-membrane and protein-membrane interactions”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2005, 44, 6697-6700

29.     Blake S., Mayer T., Mayer M., Yang J. “Monitoring chemical reactions using ion channel-forming peptides, ChemBioChem, 2006, 7, 433-435.

30.     Uram J. D., Ke K., Hunt A. J., Mayer M. “Label-free affinity assays by rapid detection of immune complexes using nanopores”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2006, 45, 2281-2285

31.     Estes D. J., Lopez S. R., Fuller A. O., Mayer M. “Triggering and observing the aggregation and fusion of lipid membranes in a microfluidic chamber”, Biophys. J., 2006, 91, 233-243.

32.     Uram J. D., Ke K., Hunt A. J., Mayer M. “Submicrometer pore-based characterization and quantification of antibody-virus interactions”, Small, 2006, 2, 967-972.

33      Uram J. D., Mayer M. “Estimation of solid phase affinity constants using resistive pulses from nanoparticles”, Biosens. and Bioelectr., 2007, 22, 1556-1560

34      Capone R., Blake S., Rincon Restrepo M., Yang J., Mayer M. “Designing nanosensors based on charged derivatives of gramicidin A”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129, 9737-9745.

35      Mayer M., Semetey V., Gitlin I., Yang J., Whitesides G.M. "Quantifying protein-ligand interactions using ion channel-forming peptides" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 1453-1465

36      Estes D.J., Memarsadeghi S., Lundy S.K., Mikol D.D., Fox D.A., Mayer M. "High-throughput profiling of ion channel activity in primary human lymphocytes" Anal. Chem., 2008, 80, 3728-3735.

37      Uram J. D., Ke K., Mayer M. "Noise and bandwidth of current recordings from submicrometer pores and nanopores" ACS Nano, 2008, 2, 857-872.

38      Majd S., Mayer M. "Generating arrays with high content and minimal consumption of functional membrane proteins" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 16060–16064

39      Capone R., Prangkio P., Sauer A.M., Bautista M.R., Turner R.S., Yang J., Mayer M. "Alzheimer's Disease-Related Amyloid-Beta Ion Channels: Resolving a Controversy" Neurotoxicity Research, 2009, 16, 1–13

40      Horger K.S., Estes D.J., Capone R., Mayer M. "Films of agarose enable rapid formation of giant liposomes in solution of physiologic ionic strength" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 1810–1819