Nanowells were prepared as described previously (Junesch et al., 2012 (link), 2015 (link); Malekian et al., 2017 (link); Ferhan et al., 2018 (link)) using 107 nm polystyrene colloids on Nb2O5 and 158 nm on SiO2 (Microparticles). Nanowells in SiO2 were prepared on fused silica to enable direct etching of the solid support (Malekian et al., 2017 (link)). Nanowells in Nb2O5 were prepared on borosilicate glass (which cannot be easily etched) onto which Nb2O5 was first deposited by reactive sputter coating with O2 and Ar (Junesch et al., 2012 (link)) (Nordiko). A 20 nm thick SiO2 layer was deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (Surface Technology Systems). Recipes aiming for stochiometric SiO2 or Si3N4 were used.
For bilayer formation with negative lipids, a 20 mM citric acid buffer was used with 150 mM KCl at a pH of 4.8. IRSp53 binding was performed in a buffer with 20 mM tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane and 150 mM NaCl with pH adjusted to 7.4 unless stated otherwise. The pH values were adjusted with concentrated HCl and NaOH.
The setup for extinction spectroscopy with high resolution and tracking of multiple resonance features has been described previously (Junesch et al., 2015 (link); Ferhan et al., 2018 (link)). Extinction is presented using the natural logarithm of the ratio between reference and measured intensities.