TY - JOUR
T1 - Assembly and characterization of biomolecular memristors consisting of ion channel-doped lipid membranes
AU - Najem, Joseph S.
AU - Taylor, Graham J.
AU - Armendarez, Nick
AU - Weiss, Ryan J.
AU - Hasan, Md Sakib
AU - Rose, Garrett S.
AU - Schuman, Catherine D.
AU - Belianinov, Alex
AU - Sarles, Stephen A.
AU - Collier, C. Patrick
N1 - Funding Information:
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes.
Funding Information:
Financial support was provided by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF ECCS-1631472. Research for G.J.T., C.D.S., A.B., and C.P.C. was partially sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UTBattelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy. A portion of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Journal of Visualized Experiments.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - The ability to recreate synaptic functionalities in synthetic circuit elements is essential for neuromorphic computing systems that seek to emulate the cognitive powers of the brain with comparable efficiency and density. To date, silicon-based three-terminal transistors and two-terminal memristors have been widely used in neuromorphic circuits, in large part due to their ability to co-locate information processing and memory. Yet these devices cannot achieve the interconnectivity and complexity of the brain because they are power-hungry, fail to mimic key synaptic functionalities, and suffer from high noise and high switching voltages. To overcome these limitations, we have developed and characterized a biomolecular memristor that mimics the composition, structure, and switching characteristics of biological synapses. Here, we describe the process of assembling and characterizing biomolecular memristors consisting of a 5 nm-thick lipid bilayer formed between lipid-functionalized water droplets in oil and doped with voltage-activated alamethicin peptides. While similar assembly protocols have been used to investigate biophysical properties of droplet-supported lipid membranes and membrane-bound ion channels, this article focuses on key modifications of the droplet interface bilayer method essential for achieving consistent memristor performance. Specifically, we describe the liposome preparation process and the incorporation of alamethicin peptides in lipid bilayer membranes, and the appropriate concentrations of each constituent as well as their impact on the overall response of the memristors. We also detail the characterization process of biomolecular memristors, including measurement and analysis of memristive current-voltage relationships obtained via cyclic voltammetry, as well as short-term plasticity and learning in response to step-wise voltage pulse trains.
AB - The ability to recreate synaptic functionalities in synthetic circuit elements is essential for neuromorphic computing systems that seek to emulate the cognitive powers of the brain with comparable efficiency and density. To date, silicon-based three-terminal transistors and two-terminal memristors have been widely used in neuromorphic circuits, in large part due to their ability to co-locate information processing and memory. Yet these devices cannot achieve the interconnectivity and complexity of the brain because they are power-hungry, fail to mimic key synaptic functionalities, and suffer from high noise and high switching voltages. To overcome these limitations, we have developed and characterized a biomolecular memristor that mimics the composition, structure, and switching characteristics of biological synapses. Here, we describe the process of assembling and characterizing biomolecular memristors consisting of a 5 nm-thick lipid bilayer formed between lipid-functionalized water droplets in oil and doped with voltage-activated alamethicin peptides. While similar assembly protocols have been used to investigate biophysical properties of droplet-supported lipid membranes and membrane-bound ion channels, this article focuses on key modifications of the droplet interface bilayer method essential for achieving consistent memristor performance. Specifically, we describe the liposome preparation process and the incorporation of alamethicin peptides in lipid bilayer membranes, and the appropriate concentrations of each constituent as well as their impact on the overall response of the memristors. We also detail the characterization process of biomolecular memristors, including measurement and analysis of memristive current-voltage relationships obtained via cyclic voltammetry, as well as short-term plasticity and learning in response to step-wise voltage pulse trains.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063712006&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85063712006&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3791/58998
DO - 10.3791/58998
M3 - Article
C2 - 30907866
AN - SCOPUS:85063712006
SN - 1940-087X
VL - 2019
JO - Journal of Visualized Experiments
JF - Journal of Visualized Experiments
IS - 145
M1 - e58998
ER -