NR Study of the Membrane Intake Mechanism during the Plasmid Gene Delivery by a Microfluidic Synthetic Lipid Nanoparticle

With lipid nanoparticles (LNP) becoming an important vehicle for loading and delivering genes, it is ever crucial to understand how LNPs interact with cell membranes. Lack of understanding of the molecular processes across the membrane hinders our capability in controlling the delivery of genes into cells and associated cytotoxicity. To approach this challenging issue, we propose to produce a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) onto an optically flat silicon substrate from small uni-lamellar vesicles (SUVs) and follow their interactions with different LNPs with and without DNA. To enhance the resolution of NR, we could easily manipulate the H/D labelling to lipids inside the bilayer or in the LNPs and water. This is the time time such an experiment is going to be pursued from NR. From this work, we expect to gain first-hand information about the LNP-lipid bilayer interactive processes.