ELECTROSTATIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO DNA/MEMBRANE INTERACTIONS

我们建议从理论上研究静电对DNA-膜相互作用的贡献。 这项工作的动机来自于一个大型的实验努力，重点是通过形成阳离子脂质体-DNA复合物来开发用于基因治疗的改进的非病毒载体。 实验表明，静电决定了复合物的结构，从而决定了进入核的路线。 我们计划研究这些系统中的静电相互作用，并具体解决：1）它们与自组装结构的相关性; 2）控制进入细胞和细胞核的剩余场; 3）与膜和DNA曲率弹性的相互作用。

We propose to study, theoretically, the contribution of electrostatics to DNA-membrane interactions. The motivation for this work comes from a large experimental effort focused on developing improved, nonviral vectors for gene therapy, by forming cationic liposome-DNA complexes. Experiments indicate that electrostatics determine the complexes' structures and thereby the routes into the nucleus. We plan to study the electrostatic interactions in these systems and specifically address: 1) their relevance to the self-assembled structures; 2) the residual fields which govern the entry into the cell and nucleus; 3) the interplay with membrane and DNA curvature elasticity.