RUI:Characterizing interfacial diffusion in biomembranes and polymer thin films with single-molecule fluorescence microscopy

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The Experimental Physical Chemistry program and the Cellular Systems Cluster support the research of Daniel Burden, two faculty colleagues, and undergraduate research students at Wheaton College, Illinois. The experiments employ confocal and wide-field, single-molecule detection and have two general goals: to characterize the diffusion and assembly dynamics of fluorescent proteins bound to lipid membranes; and to probe the diffusion of small molecules within and on polymer thin films. Alpha hemolysin, a bacterial toxin, will be fluorescently tagged and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy used to monitor diffusion rates and channel assembly characteristics in lipid membranes. In addition, the translational mobility of alpha hemolysin in actin-stabilized bilayers will be studied in an approach that allows manipulation of the viscoelastic properties of the bilayers. The second major focus of the research is on the diffusion of small molecules within the layered nanoscale structure of polyelectrolyte multilayer thin films. These projects will expose Wheaton College undergraduates to molecular biology, membrane biochemistry, instrument design, and single-molecule imaging. The results of this interdisciplinary research in nanoscience will be of broad interest to chemists and biochemists.