Single Molecules as Probes of Lipid Membrane Microenvironments

这项研究项目得到分析和表面化学计划的支持，使用近场和远场显微镜方法，结合单分子光谱，量化膜系统中探测分子光谱中单分子波动的环境来源。系统地研究了一系列高度有序和具有良好特性的脂单分子膜和双层膜中的单分子发射波动，开发了一套单分子探针，用于获得膜系统的结构信息。堪萨斯大学的罗伯特·邓恩教授和他的合作者正在开发这种方法，以提供关于含有胆固醇和肺表面活性物质蛋白质的膜系统的信息。为了了解细胞膜和相关生物系统的功能，必须获得膜运行环境的详细结构信息。通过将近场和远场显微镜方法与探测器分子发射波动的研究结合起来，堪萨斯大学的邓恩教授和他的同事们正在开发能够提供这种信息的结构探测器。对一系列高度有序的模型膜中的探针分子波动进行了系统的研究，以发展这种探针方法学。

This research project, supported in the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program, uses near and far field microscopic methods, coupled with single molecule spectrosocpy, to quantify the environmental origin of single molecule fluctuations in the spectroscopy of probe molecules in membrane systems. Systematic studies of single molecule emission fluctuations in a series of highly ordered and well characterized lipid monolayers and bilayers are used to develop a set of single molecule probes that are used to obtain structural information about membrane systems. Professor Robert Dunn and his collaborators at the University of Kansas are developing this approach to provide information about membrane systems containing cholesterol and lung surfactant proteins. In order to understand the functioning of cell membranes and related biological systems, detailed structural information must be obtained in the environment in which the membrane operates. By coupling near and far-field microscopic methods with studies of probe molecule emission fluctuations, Professor Dunn and his coworkers at the University of Kansas are developing structural probes that can provide this information. A systematic investigation of probe molecule fluctuations in a series of highly ordered model membranes is used to develop this probe methodology.