| Research > The Cell Membrane: Structure and Function | ||||
The
cell membrane (or plasma membrane) is a selectively permeable
barrier between the cell and it's external environment. The membrane
is a lipid bilayer composed primarily of phospholipids, sphingolipids
and cholesterol.
For many years a fluid mosaic description of the membrane has dominated, in which lipids and embedded proteins are randomly distributed in the bilayer. It is however now known that this is not the case, but that true biological membranes exhibit a much more complicated structure. For example, biological membranes typically display an asymmetric lipid composition between leaflets and in the plane of the bilayer or both lipids and embedded proteins may be ordered into micro-domains (lipid rafts). Formation of such structures is driven by lipid-lipid and lipid-protein molecular interactions. |
A schematic of the cell membrane, from Human Biology by Daniel Chiras |
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Our lab is interested in the physics behind lipid/cholesterol self-assembly and how the presence of cholesterol in the cell membrane plays an important role in membrane structure and function. In order to do this research we look at model membrane systems (in-vitro lipid/cholesterol mixtures) with x-ray scattering, Atomic force microscopy and fluorescence microscopy. We look at membrane structure and are particularly interested in in-plane ordering in the bilayer. We also interested in investigating the role of w-3 and w-6 fatty acids on membrane structure using synchrotron x-ray diffraction.
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Recent Projects "Lipid Bilayer Discs and Banded Tubules: Photo-induced Lipid Sorting in Ternary Mixtures” “Cationic Lipid Absorption on Titanium: A Counter-ion Mediated Bilayer to Lipid-Tubule-Network Transition” |
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