The inventions can help to characterize the height of lipid structures atomic force microscopy (AFM) that less time consuming and laborious effort.
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Tech ID: 11-126 Patents: 20150336073 Description The present invention describes a way to optically determine the height of fluorescent phospholipid multi-layers by measuring the intensity of emitted radiation using an inverted microscope and image analysis software. Fluorescent phospholipid multi-layers are an essential part of the cell structure, however, to characterize the height of these lipid structures atomic force microscopy (AFM) is generally performed, which is a time consuming and laborious process. The proposed invention outlines a method to determine the feature height over large areas rapidly using fluorescent intensity calibration curves (plots of intensity/s versus feature height) requiring no use of AFM. Fluorescent phospholipid multi-layers can be patterned in several ways including micro-contact printing, using Langmuir troughs or dip pen nanolithography (DPN). DPN is used to pattern fluorescent lipid multi-layer patterns (in the shape of dots, lines, and squares) and to compare their height obtained using AFM and optically using calibration curves.