The lipid bilayer single channel recording technique is commonly used to measure the detailed physiological properties of ion channel proteins.
It permits easy control of the solution and membrane lipid composition.
Although it is compatible with pharmacological screening devices, its use is limited due to the low measurement efficiency. We have developed a novel lipid bilayer single channel recording technique in which solubilized ion channels immobilized on a gold electrode are directly incorporated into a lipid bilayer at the same time as the bilayer is formed at the tip of it. Using this technique, we measured the single channel currents of several types of channel proteins. This technique requires only one action to simultaneously form the bilayers and reconstitute the channels into the membranes. This simplicity greatly increases the measurement efficiency and enables the technique to potentially be combined with high-throughput screening devices.