GISANS directed to study lipid bilayer structures on nanowire arrays

Nanowires are increasingly being used in life science to interact with living cells, for example as nanometer probes. The interaction between the cell membrane, i.e. a lipid bilayer, and the nanowires is not fully understood. In this proposal we will study the structure of the lipid bilayer with time-of-flight (TOF) grazing incident small angle neutron scattering (GISANS). We will also use the lipid bilayer on nanowires as curved model membrane and anchor membrane proteins in the bilayer. This is done to study the how the membrane proteins are affected by the curvature of the lipid bilayer.

纳米线（Nanowires）正愈发广泛地应用于生命科学领域，用于与活细胞互动，例如作为纳米探针（nanometer probes）。目前人们对细胞膜——即脂质双分子层（lipid bilayer）——与纳米线之间的相互作用尚未得到完全阐明。在本研究提案中，我们将采用飞行时间（time-of-flight, TOF）掠入射小角中子散射（grazing incident small angle neutron scattering, GISANS）技术对脂质双分子层的结构展开研究。此外，我们还将以纳米线表面的脂质双分子层作为弯曲型模型膜，并将膜蛋白（membrane proteins）锚定在该双分子层中，以此探究脂质双分子层的曲率对膜蛋白所产生的影响。