Probing nanoscale electrical properties of organic semiconducting materials at the interface with an electrolyte solution under externally applied voltages is key in the field of organic bioelectronics. It is demonstrated that the conductivity and interfacial capacitance of the active channel of an electrolyte‐gated organic field‐effect transistor (EGOFET) under operation can be probed at the nanoscale using scanning dielectric microscopy in force detection mode in liquid environment. Local electrostatic force versus gate voltage transfer characteristics are obtained on the device and correlated with the global current–voltage transfer characteristics of the EGOFET. Nanoscale maps of the conductivity of the semiconducting channel show the dependence of the channel conductivity on the gate voltage and its variation along the channel due to the space charge limited conduction. The maps reveal very small electrical heterogeneities, which correspond to local interfacial capacitance variations due to an ultrathin non‐uniform insulating layer resulting from a phase separation in the organic semiconducting blend. Present results offer insights into the transduction mechanism at the organic semiconductor/electrolyte interfaces at scales down to ≈100 nm, which can bring substantial optimization of organic electronic devices for bioelectronic applications such as electrical recording on excitable cells or label‐free biosensing.

Identification of antibody binding epitopes is crucial to understand immunological mechanisms. It is of particular interest for allergenic proteins with high cross-reactivity as observed in the lipid transfer protein (LTP) syndrome that is characterized by severe allergic reactions. Art v 3, a pollen LTP from mugwort is frequently involved in this cross-reactivity, but no antibody binding epitopes have been determined so far.  To reveal human IgE binding regions of Art v 3, we produced three murine high-affinity monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which showed 70-90% coverage of the allergenic epitopes from mugwort pollen allergic patients. As reliable methods to determine structural epitopes with tightly interacting intact antibodies under native conditions are lacking, we developed a straightforward NMR approach termed hydrogen/deuterium exchange memory (HDXMEM). It relies on the slow exchange between the invisible antigen-mAb complex and the free 15N-labeled antigen whose 1H-15N correlations are detected. Due to a memory effect, changes of NH protection during antibody binding are measured. Differences in H/D exchange rates and analyses of mAb reactivity to homologous LTPs revealed three structural epitopes: two partially cross-reactive regions around α-helices 2 and 4, as well as a novel Art v 3-specific epitope at the C-terminus. Protein variants with exchanged epitope residues confirmed the antibody-binding sites and revealed strongly reduced IgE reactivity. Using the novel HDXMEM for NMR epitope mapping allowed identification of the first structural epitopes of an allergenic pollen LTP. This knowledge enables improved cross-reactivity prediction for patients suffering from LTP-allergy and facilitates design of therapeutics.

The specific capacitance of biological membranes is a key physical parameter in bioelectricity that also provides valuable physicochemical information on composition, phase or hydration properties. Cholesterol is known to modulate the physicochemical properties of biomembranes, but its effect on the specific capacitance has not been fully established, yet. Here we use the high spatial resolution capabilities of in-liquid Scanning Dielectric Microscopy in force detection mode to directly demonstrate that DOPC bilayer patches at 50% cholesterol concentration show a strong reduction of their specific capacitance with respect to pure DOPC bilayer patches. The reduction observed (~35%) cannot be explained by the small increase in bilayer thickness (~16%). We suggest that the reduction of the specific capacitance might be due to the dehydration of the polar head groups caused by the insertion of cholesterol molecules in the bilayer. The results reported confirm the potential of in-liquid SDM to study the electrical and physicochemical properties of lipid bilayers at very small scales (down to ~200 nm here), with implications in fields such as biophysics, bioelectricity, biochemistry and biosensing. capacitance gradient approach curves of Figs. 1 and 2. Dependence of force on the lipid bilayer patch specific capacitance.

Liposomes are widely used as drug delivery carriers and as cell model systems. Here, we measure the dielectric properties of individual liposomes adsorbed on a metal electrode by in-liquid scanning dielectric microscopy in force detection mode. From the measurements the lamellarity of the liposomes, the separation between the lamellae and the specific capacitance of the lipid bilayer can be obtained. As application we considered the case of non-extruded DOPC liposomes with radii in the range ~ 100–800 nm. Uni-, bi- and tri-lamellar liposomes have been identified, with the largest population corresponding to bi-lamellar liposomes. The interlamellar separation in the bi-lamellar liposomes is found to be below ~ 10 nm in most instances. The specific capacitance of the DOPC lipid bilayer is found to be ~ 0.75 µF/cm2 in excellent agreement with the value determined on solid supported planar lipid bilayers. The lamellarity of the DOPC liposomes shows the usual correlation with the liposome's size. No correlation is found, instead, with the shape of the adsorbed liposomes. The proposed approach offers a powerful label-free and non-invasive method to determine the lamellarity and dielectric properties of single liposomes.

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