A new approach to look at membrane in plane organisation via giSANS

Biological membrane in plane organisation is a challenging topic, specially since it has been suggested to depend on curvature. So far the main approach to study curvature induces in plane phase separation has been through the approach of fluorescent techniques and liposomes. Here we propose to use grazing angle small angle neutron scattering to explore the signal from a well ordered nanoparticle coated surface and use it as a solid substrate to form curved supported lipid bilayers by vesicle fusion. The curvature of the membranes will be tuned by the size of the nanoparticles in the surface coating.平面内组织的生物膜（biological membrane）是极具挑战性的研究课题，尤其是已有研究表明其组织特性依赖于膜曲率。迄今为止，针对曲率诱导平面相分离的主流研究手段多采用荧光技术与脂质体（liposomes）。本研究提出采用掠角小角中子散射（grazing angle small angle neutron scattering），对有序排列的纳米颗粒（nanoparticle）修饰表面的散射信号进行表征，并以该表面作为固体基底，通过囊泡融合法制备具有可控曲率的支撑磷脂双层膜（supported lipid bilayers）。膜的曲率可通过表面修饰层中纳米颗粒的粒径实现精准调控。