Fundamental studies of adhesion phenomena involving vesicles

囊泡是微米或纳米大小的颗粒，它们借助边界膜将有限体积的液体分隔开来。以囊泡为基础的产品，如织物柔软剂、护肤霜、护发液，以及治疗药物，如Doxil（化疗药物）和两性霉素（抗真菌药物），在全球范围内构成了数十亿美元的业务。然而，由于其中许多产品的开发都是反复试验、以实验为重点的，因此，对于哪些因素会导致更少的原材料消耗、更有效的资源利用、更低的环境影响和更好的产品功能，仍然缺乏一个基本的了解。这个项目代表了对上述关系进行系统理解的第一步。特别是，我们专注于一个现象，支配优化的囊泡为基础的产品-囊泡粘附（即囊泡粘）。囊泡粘附是产品功能的关键步骤，如乳液和治疗剂；另一方面，它对织物柔顺剂等产品是一种威胁，并导致这些产品中的活性物质起霜或沉淀。

Vesicles are micron or nanometer-sized particles which compartmentalize a finite volume of liquid with the help of a bounding membrane. Vesicle-based products such as fabric softeners, skin creams, hair lotions, and therapeutics such as Doxil (chemotherapeutic) and Amphotericin (antifungal) together constitute a multi-billion dollar business worldwide. However, due to the trial-and-error, experimentally-focused nature of development of many of these products, a fundamental understanding of what factors would lead to lesser raw material consumption, more efficient resource usage, lower environmental impact and better product function is still lacking. This project represents a first step towards the development of a systematic understanding of the above relationships. In particular, we focus on one phenomenon that governs optimization of vesicle-based products - vesicle adhesion (i.e. vesicle sticking). Vesicle adhesion is a crucial step in the function of products such as lotions and therapeutics; on the other hand, it is a menace for products such as fabric softeners, and leads to creaming or settling of the active material in these products.