Tue, 08/11/2022 - 14:15
,
Online-talk via MS Teams

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Fleury
(
Host: Dr. Hendrik Hähl
)
Experimental Physics, UdS (SB)

Opportunities, challenges, and limitations of lipid droplets in  free-standing lipid bilayers 

 

Lipid droplets (LDs) are ubiquitous, cytoplasmic fat storage organelles that originate from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. They are composed of a core of neutral lipids surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer. Proteins embedded into this monolayer membrane adopt a monotopic topology and are crucial for regulated lipid storage and consumption. A key question is, which collective properties of protein-intrinsic and lipid-mediated features determine spatio-temporal protein partitioning between phospholipid bilayer and LD monolayer membranes. To address this question, a freestanding phospholipid bilayer with physiological lipidic composition is produced using microfluidics and micrometer-sized LDs are dispersed around the bilayer that spontaneously insert into the bilayer. Using confocal microscopy, the 3D geometry of the reconstituted LDs is determined with high spatial resolution. Fluorescence measurements reveals the diffusion and partition of proteins inserted into this bilayer. In this presentation, I will present the advantages and disadvantages of this microfluidic technique to investigate the biophysical properties of protein-enriched lipid droplets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Legal notice Privacy policy