Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Ascona, Switzerland

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

Poster Abstracts

1-POS Board 1 Construction f A Multi-Stage Micro-Reactor In A Droplet Interface Bilayer System Maxwell Allen-Benton . King's College London, London, London, United Kingdom. Droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) are a stable, convenient and flexible platform for the formation of artificial lipid bilayers. Formed from the contact of two lipid monolayer encapsulated aqueous droplets in a surrounding oil phase, they are compatible with trans-membrane protein insertion and support the formation of asymmetric bilayers. As well as being a promising platform for studying membrane biophysics and membrane transport proteins, droplet interface bilayers are finding uses in synthetic biology. The stability of DIBs allows large networks of bilayer- connected droplets to be constructed, with the incorporation of proteins pores facilitating controlled movement of substances throughout the aqueous phase of the network. I aim to use the droplet interface bilayer system to construct a multi-chambered, enzymatically driven micro-reactor. The aqueous interiors of the droplets will serve as the chambers of the reactor, with porins and membrane transport proteins facilitating the movement of reactants and products across the lipid bilayers that separate the chambers. The efficacy of the system will be assessed using fluorometric and colorimetric indicators. As such, a spatially separated enzymatic cascade reaction will be created in a synthetic system.

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