Artificial thylakoids: a bio-inspired platform for investigating assembly and organization in multi-layer membranes

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All biological cells, from simple bacteria to human ones, are surrounded by 'membranes' comprised of lipids. Proteins within these membranes facilitate communication between the cell and its exterior, providing functions essential for the life of the cell. Some specialized biological membranes in cells' interior are stacked into multi-layers, allowing a high density of membrane proteins to be packed into a small volume. In plants, stacked membranes enhance the efficiency of photosynthesis, the process used to harness solar energy for growth. This proposal seeks to generate new 3-D arrangements of artificial membranes in the laboratory, to create new structures and functions not found in Nature. A new "synthetic biology" approach will take the individual protein and lipid components from cells and recombine them into model stacked membranes on solid surfaces. Proteins normally involved in photosynthesis will be used to create well-defined artificial plant-like membranes which can then be used to explore natural processes in a controlled environment. They aim to (1) generate array-patterns of these stacked membranes rich in photosynthetic plant proteins, and (2) to investigate how assembly and protein organisation occurs in these model membranes to inform us on natural systems. Furthermore, these controlled, stacked membrane patterns are expected to have applications in modern nano-devices, such as biosensors.The research will be led by Peter Adams, a scientist in the Molecular and Nanoscale Physics (MNP) group headed by Prof. Stephen Evans, at the University of Leeds, all experienced with artificial membranes. Collaborators at the University of Sheffield, Dr. Matt Johnson and Prof. C. Neil Hunter, are specialists in photosynthesis and will provide the purified plant proteins needed to assemble these membranes. They will use state-of-the-art "atomic force microscopy" to visualize the arrangement of membrane proteins at the nano-scale and determine their spatial organization. This technique uses a sharp probe to "see by touch" and can resolve minute features as small as one-millionth of a millimeter. Light-based "fluorescence microscopy" and "spectroscopy" techniques will be used to detect the optical properties of the photosynthesis proteins.In conclusion, these efforts are expected to make substantial advances in the controlled design of 3-D, complex, functional biomaterials.