Immobilising giant unilamellar vesicles with zirconium metal–organic framework anchors

Abstract

Lipid bilayer vesicles have provided a window into the function and fundamental properties of cells. However, as is the case for most living and soft matter, vesicles do not remain still. This necessitates some microscopy experiments to include a preparatory immobilisation step. Here, we describe a straightforward method to immobilise giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) using zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and demonstrate that GUVs bound in this way will stay in position on a timescale of minutes to hours.