Interactions between Cell Mimicking Vesicles and de novo Ultrashort Peptide Amphiphiles: A Comparative SANS Study

In this work, we propose to exploit the unique capability of SANS to study the structural changes of the multi-component lipid bilayers surrounding small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs). SUVs of different lipid composition work well as models mimicking bacterial and mammalian cell membranes. Upon exposure to de novo designed ultrashort antimicrobial lipopeptides, SANS helps unravel how different lipopeptides bind to different lipid bilayers, providing useful indications about different mechanisms of action. We request 2 days on SANS2d time to exploit its wide Q range for resolving different sizes of structures and high flux for following dynamic structural changes.