A novel 3D microfluidic platform will be used to understand the nature of nascent fusion pores and their expansion kinetics for natural SNARE-TMD mutations and lipidic curvatures (e.g., vesicle sizes) involving C5 and B7. Subcellular organelles such as lipid droplets (LD) will be studied to understand the biophysical mechanism of dynamic partitioning of proteins between free-standing lipid bilayer and LD monolayer with C9, C10, and B7. In secondary projects, it will be explored how hydrophobins and Eap affect electroporation and permeability of phospholipid bilayers with B1, B2, B7 and A7; artificial signal cascades will be realized with C1, and virus fusion explored with B7.

Heo, P., S. Ramakrishnan, J. Coleman, J. E. Rothman, J.-B. Fleury, and F. Pincet, "Highly Reproducible Physiological Asymmetric Membrane with Freely Diffusing Embedded Proteins in a 3D‐Printed Microfluidic Setup", Small, vol. 15, issue 21, pp. 1900725, 2019.