The Structuring Role of Water in Bio-Interfaces

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This PhD-project will break with common paradigms and focuses on fundamental properties of confined water in its structure-to-function relationship to biomimetic membrane systems. Bio-interfaces such as those being found in lipid self-assemblies are important components in cell-life allowing the construction of various biomembranes including the planar plasma membrane, tubular cell-to-cell connections or bicontinuous saddle-like interfaces to enhance bio-catalysis. Vast amount of structural studies have been carried out - and still are - for understanding the nanostructure of these assemblies mainly applying X-ray and neutron scattering as well as using light and electron microscopy. Nonetheless, the structuring role of water is widely unstudied and mostly only the bulk water properties are considered, although water appears in different states of order, when structuring bio-interfaces, and as a consequence, influencing the structural and mechanical properties of them. This project aims to shed light onto this topic discerning bound, perturbed and free interfacial water in lipid self-assembled confinements and hereby tackling many still open questions such as hydration forces, water clustering, stacking registry effects and interfacial undulation behaviour. The underlying working hypothesis is that the interplay between the water and lipid matrix in biointerfaces leads to structural, reciprocal imprinting in both components (lipid and water), and they should therefore be interpreted as one inseparable unit in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the biomembrane matrix.