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

实验物理化学计划和细胞系统集群支持丹尼尔负担，两名教师的同事，和本科研究生在惠顿学院，伊利诺伊州的研究。该实验采用共聚焦和宽场，单分子检测，并有两个总体目标：表征结合到脂质膜的荧光蛋白的扩散和组装动力学;和探测聚合物薄膜内和上的小分子扩散。 α溶血素，一种细菌毒素，将被荧光标记，荧光相关光谱用于监测扩散速率和脂质膜中的通道组装特征。 此外，α溶血素在肌动蛋白稳定的双层的平移流动性将进行研究的方法，允许操纵的粘弹性的双层。研究的第二个主要焦点是小分子在多层薄膜的分层纳米级结构内的扩散。 这些项目将使惠顿学院的本科生接触分子生物学、膜生物化学、仪器设计和单分子成像。 纳米科学的跨学科研究结果将引起化学家和生物化学家的广泛兴趣。

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.