Patent ID: 7132122

Claim:
A method of constructing one or more modified lipid bilayers, the method comprising: i) providing at least a first primary lipid bilayer; ii) providing one or more sources of a UV light; iii) providing one or more patterned UV-opaque masks between the source of UV light and the primary lipid bilayer, which patterned UV mask comprises one or more UV-transparent areas at one or more specific locations in the UV mask; iv) creating in the primary lipid bilayer, one or more non-lipid areas beneath the one or more UV transparent areas of the UV-opaque mask, by exposing the primary lipid bilayer to UV light through the one or more patterned UV-opaque masks, thereby constructing one or more patterned lipid bilayers, which patterned lipid bilayer comprises the one or more non-lipid areas which spatially correspond to the one or more UV-transparent areas in the UV mask; v) providing at least a first secondary lipid bilayer; and, vi) contacting the one or more patterned lipid bilayers with the at least first secondary lipid bilayer, which at least first secondary lipid bilayer localizes within the one or more non-lipid areas in the patterned lipid bilayer.