Biomimetic Membranes with Transmembrane Proteins: State-of-the-Art in Transmembrane Protein Applications

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 20; no. 6; p. 1437
• Main Authors: Ryu, Hyunil, Fuwad, Ahmed, Yoon, Sunhee, Jang, Huisoo, Lee, Jong Chan, Kim, Sun Min, Jeon, Tae-Joon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21-03-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; aquaporin; ATP; Biomaterials; Biomedical materials; Biomimetic Materials; biomimetic membranes; Biomimetics; Biosensing Techniques; Biosensors; Cell Membrane - chemistry; Cell Membrane - metabolism; Concentration gradient; Crystallography; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA sequencing; Drug Discovery - methods; Drug screening; Energy harvesting; Gram-positive bacteria; Hormones; Humans; Ion channels; Medical research; Membrane proteins; Membrane Proteins - chemistry; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Membranes; Membranes, Artificial; Molecular Conformation; Molecular structure; Nanotechnology; Neurotransmitters; Protein purification; Proteins; Researchers; Review; Sensors; Signal transduction; Structure-function relationships; Studies; transmembrane proteins; Water purification; X-ray crystallography; transmembrane proteins; biomimetic membranes; drug screening; biosensors; aquaporin; ATP; DNA sequencing
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms20061437

In biological cells, membrane proteins are the most crucial component for the maintenance of cell physiology and processes, including ion transportation, cell signaling, cell adhesion, and recognition of signal molecules. Therefore, researchers have proposed a number of membrane platforms to mimic the biological cell environment for transmembrane protein incorporation. The performance and selectivity of these transmembrane proteins based biomimetic platforms are far superior to those of traditional material platforms, but their lack of stability and scalability rule out their commercial presence. This review highlights the development of transmembrane protein-based biomimetic platforms for four major applications, which are biosensors, molecular interaction studies, energy harvesting, and water purification. We summarize the fundamental principles and recent progress in transmembrane protein biomimetic platforms for each application, discuss their limitations, and present future outlooks for industrial implementation.