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Intern: Lindsay Deneault, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University Mentor: Wren Greene Faculty Supervisor: Jacob Israelachvili Department: Materials

MECHANISM AND CONTROL OF THE ADSORPTION OF LIPID BILAYER VESICLES TO GLASS SURFACES.

Supported bilayers are important in drug delivery systems and allow researches to study membrane components in a controlled environment. Vesicle fusion to a surface provides a simple and convenient way of preparing high quality supported bilayers. However, little is known about the physics and chemistry of bilayer formation from vesicles and interactions between bilayers and surfaces. Most believe that vesicles adsorb to the surface, fuse with other vesicles, rupture to form bilayer discs, then spread to form a continuous bilayer. Additional models stress bending rigidity and curvature, adhesion energy, and contact potential. Unresolved issues include the cause of vesicles rupture, timing of fusion, whether fusion causes rupture, and whether adsorption causes fusion. Here, we study each process of vesicle adsorption and bilayer formation independently using the Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM), Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP), and UV/VIS to understand the various internal vesicle forces and interparticle forces that determine how vesicles spread as bilayers onto surfaces. These data will provide insight into how lipid type, initial vesicle size, physical and chemical nature of the surfaces, and the solution and osmotic conditions modify the interaction forces. We seek to create the optimum conditions to produce uniform and stable supported lipid bilayers.

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