Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Ascona, Switzerland

Liposomes, Exosomes, and Virosomes: From Modeling Complex Membrane Processes to Medical Diagnostics and Drug Delivery

Thursday Speaker Abstracts

Phases and Fluctuations in Biological Membranes and Possible Implications for General Anesthesia Sarah L. Veatch . University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. The thermodynamic properties of plasma membrane lipids play a vital role in many functions at the mammalian cell surface. Some functions are thought to occur, at least in part, because plasma membrane lipids have a tendency to separate into two distinct liquid phases. We propose that these lipid mediated functions occur because plasma membrane composition is tuned close to a miscibility critical point at physiological temperature. This hypothesis is supported by our observations of micron-sized and dynamic critical composition fluctuations in isolated plasma membranes near room temperature. In this talk, I will discuss some of our ongoing efforts to probe for the existence and consequences of criticality in the plasma membranes of intact cells using super-resolution imaging of intact cellular membranes and functional studies of lipid mediated processes. I will focus on recent results showing a striking correlation between the effects of compounds on critical temperatures in isolated plasma membrane vesicles and their function as general anesthetics in cells and organisms. I will present our current thinking of how at least some aspects of anesthetic functions could be attributed to lipid heterogeneity.

40