Research in my lab is biophysical in nature – essentially using physical and chemical techniques to answer biological questions about the cell membrane, the selectively phosholipid bilayer permeable structure that separates a cell’s interior from its surroundings. We use two-dimensional lipid monolayers at the air/water interface as models of the outer leaflet of the cell membrane that allow control over composition and surface density of the biological components. In addition to monolayers, we create and image with fluorescence microscopy more physiologically relevant giant unilamellar vesicles, essentially spherical lipid bilayers that model a cell membrane without any cellular contents. With access to several cell membrane models and a variety of biophysical techniques, current projects in Lipid lab focus on studying basic intermolecular interactions between the phospholipids contained in the layer and measuring interactions of exogenous biological agents (nanoparticles, huntingtin protein and frog spit are examples) with the cell membrane – including how the agent affects the membrane and how the membrane affects the agent.
