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Lily's Project Page |
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Intern: Lily Lee, UCSB
Mentor: Tim Alig
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Joe Zasadzinski
Department: Chemical Engineering |
STUDY OF LUNG SURFACTANT RECOVERY
A lung surfactant lines the inside of our lungs and prevents collapse of the alveoli sacks when we breathe. Some premature babies are born without a lung surfactant and therefore do not survive. We are using a Langmuir trough to measure the collapse and recovery of phospholipids. We also utilize an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to image the collapse structures of these phospholipids. We have seen that the recovery improves with a decrease in the debye length. Also, from AFM images, we can say that in the absence of salt there is material in the subphase that is not attached to the monolayer. In the presence of salt we see vesicles ejected into the subphase. This information will help contribute to future advances in the study of lung surfactants.
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