Biological Membranes - A guide for experimental and theoretical (bio-)physicists

by Prof. Cornelia Monzel (Universität Düsseldorf)

Tuesday 7 Nov 2023, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Berlin

Wegelerstraße 10/2.019 (PI) - Seminar Room BCTP I (PI)

Biological membranes are one of the most important hallmarks of life. They separate the cellular contents from the external environment, and thereby establish the spatial boundary of life. The membranes exhibit remarkable mechanical properties to form a barrier against a hostile environment, on the one hand, while being sufficiently malleable for the passage of nutrients or flow of information for cell communication, on the other hand.   

Here, I will present how biological membranes and their material properties are represented by a simple thermodynamic description. The formulation correctly reflects the mechanical properties of these nanoscale sheets and can be verified experimentally using synthetic models. Quantifying the membrane motion requires techniques with nanometer / microsecond resolution, which we realize by a novel spectroscopic technique based on a focused laser beam. This approach not only allows us to introduce and confirm theoretical models of biomembrane dynamics, but also to measure biomembrane properties of living cells to determine their activation state for medical applications. 

See also: 

J. A. Janeš, et al. PRX (2022), 12, 031030, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.031030

C. Monzel, et al. Nature Communications, (2015), 6, 8162, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9162

C. Monzel, et al. Soft Matter (2016), 12, 4755-68, https://doi.org/10.1039/c6sm00412a

C. Monzel and K. Sengupta. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (2016), 49, 243002, https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/49/24/243002