48 datasets found

The mechanism of general anaesthetic action is poorly understood despite their widespread use. It is hoped that investigating the interaction of anaesthetics with lipid bilayers...

Multiferroic materials are a rare case where ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity coexist. Bismuth Ferrite (BiFeO3) is of special interest as both properties order at room...

Using conjugated polymers as the active materials in electronic and optoelectronic devices opens up the possibility of fabricating all-polymer devices, such as active matrix...

Plants do not have the sophisticated immunoglobulin immune systems of vertibrates, instead they posses a series of stimuli based responses which defend against pathogentic...

Membrane receptor proteins (MRPs) which are thought to represent the majority of drug targets are challenging to study as their structure and function is dependent on being...

In bacteria, mechanosensitive ion channels such as MscL protect cells against osmotic shock, but, as with all ion channels, they have the potential to act as an Achilles heel,...

Natural antimicrobials are of great interest, since they are antibiotics that act on the biological membrane, and it is believed that this makes it far more difficult for...

Cuticular wax films protect plants by mediating water and nutrient transport from the environment. Surfactant is a key ingredient in agrisprays that can promote the uptake of...

The cell membrane is a very important structure in biology and many laboratory based model systems have been developed to study it using biophysical techniques. Our particular...

We ask for 8 days of beam time on CRISP to study the absorption and desorption of hydrogen and deuterium in Ti/Mg/Pd trilayer samples. Our specific objective is to understand in...

The oxidation of membrane lipids by reactive Oxygen Species, ROS, is implicated in cell apoptosis, cancer and ageing. We have performed preliminary experiments studying the...

Advantages of using organic materials as the active layer in photovoltaics include their suitability for low cost and large area processes and their mechanical flexibility. In...

Bacterial membranes contain safety valves called mechanosensitive ion channels, which protect the bacterium from changes in the osmotic pressure of their environment. However,...

N-acyl amino acids are surfactants with attractive applications in different technological fields. They are referred to as mild surfactants because they are commonly considered...

Calcium ions have been shown in a preliminary experiment to have a dramatic effect on the thickness and structure of free supported bilayer films. In this proposal we...

The proposed experiments will investigate conformational changes of the 18kDa translocator protein (TSPO) in a lipid bilayer using neutron reflectometry at the solid-liquid...

Oxidation of lipid membranes is widely known to play a crucial role in many cellular processes and pathological conditions such as apoptosis, inflammation, infection, or sepsis,...

In order to maintain their asymmetric lipid distribution, cellular membranes have a number of means to translocate lipid molecules across the bilayer. On top of the well-studied...

Plant-derived biosurfactants of the group of saponins offer an attractive alternative to synthetic surfactants because of their unique foaming and emulsifying properties...

The aim is to measure the preferential adsorption of one component in a nematic mixture. The base is 4-pentyl 4¿- cyanobiphenyl (5CB) and it is doped with 4-pentyl 4¿-...