When: May 11, 2023, 13:15 - 16.00 CET
Speaker: Yuri Gerelli, Institute for Complex Systems - CNR - Sapienza, Italy
Title: Planar biomembranes and neutron reflectometry
Where: at LINXS (Scheelvägen 19, Lund)
A seminar to discover how neutron reflectometry is advancing our understanding of biomembranes and of their interactions with proteins and other biomolecules, with insights into the analysis of increasingly complex systems.
The main seminar will be followed by a training section in which real experimental data for a flat lipid bilayer, a disordered thin film at the air-water interface and for a nanoparticle layer interacting with a biomembrane will be analysed using approaches ranging from common slab models to volume-fraction ones.
Agenda:
13:15-14:15 Seminar
14:15-14:45 Coffee
14:45-16:00 Training session
Registration deadline: May 9. After that time we will accept registrations for digital participation. For physical participants, a “no-show” fee of 200 SEK will be charged without prior notification to nina.ahlbeck@fsi.lu.se
Abstract
Biomembranes play a critical role in cellular function by separating the interior of cells and organelles from their environment. Understanding the properties and behavior of these membranes is essential for many fields, including biochemistry, biophysics, and drug discovery. Neutron reflectometry can be used to study the thickness and composition of the lipid bilayer, as well as the orientation and location of embedded proteins. This information can provide insights into the function of these membranes and how they interact with other molecules. In this seminar, we will discuss the basic principles of neutron reflectometry, the experimental setup required to perform these measurements, and the analysis techniques used to extract useful information from the data. The discussion will focus on the information that can be derived from NR experiments at different length scales, going from overall thickness and composition to the characterization of the internal structure of a biomembrane. Finally, as the systems nowadays investigated by NR are becoming more and more complex, we will discuss some of the different possible strategies for analysing NR data. In particular, the case of the interaction between a planar membrane with small peptides and nano-sized particles will be discussed. Overall, this seminar will provide attendees with a thorough understanding of the principles and applications of neutron reflectometry for the investigation of biomembranes as well as information on methods for the analysis of biomembrane systems of increasing complexity, such as multicomponent lipid membranes and biomembranes interacting with proteins and other macromolecules.
Contact person: Marie Skepö (LU)
Organisers
Please contact nina.ahlbeck@fsi.lu.se for any practical questions.
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