The innovation engine for new materials

Novel Scattering Methods Reveal Structure of Single Supported Lipid Membranes

Seminar Group: 

Speaker: 

Professor Tonya Kuhl

Address: 

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
University of California, Davis

Date: 

Friday, April 17, 2015 - 4:00pm

Location: 

ESB 1001

Host: 

Professor Jacob Israelachvili

Over the past several decades, supported lipid membranes have been used as model systems of cellular membranes, to investigate various membrane interactions, and as platforms for development of bio-sensors. Precise structural characterization by x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence diffraction at the solid-liquid interface coupled to high resolution force spectroscopy offers a wealth of insight into membrane organization, self-assembly, and domain formation as well as how membranes respond to changes in their environment.  In this talk, I will discuss some recent advances in our understanding of supported membranes including (1) high resolution details regarding the inorganic-organic interface; (2) changes in the membrane structure with fabrication method, temperature, and solution conditions; (3) a robust polymer cushioned membrane system for biosensing applications, (4) the rate at which lipids flip across the membrane, and (5) a novel, “textured” lipid phase induced by specific-multivalent protein binding to membrane embedded receptors. The talk will particularly highlight the importance of x-ray scattering techniques for single, lipid bilayer structural characterization.