Atul Parikh

Lipocentric View of Biological Membranes: Reconstituting Selected Lipid-mediated Processes

Atul N. Parikh

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of California, Davis

Self-assembly of membrane lipids provide a simple, synthetic means to recapitulate some of the most generic physical-chemical characteristics of biological membranes. This talk will illustrate some synthetic approaches that enable fundamental inquiries of (1) how membrane heterogeneity and dynamics couple; (2) how this interplay influences the biological function; and (3) how it can be manipulated toward contemporary goals of synthetic chemical biology.  Examples are drawn from the efforts aimed at designing various classes of model membranes that recapitulate compartmentalized diffusion, physical curvatures, interfacial interactions, domain organization, and enzymatic chemistry in model membranes and their relevance to the generic function of programmed cell death.

When: 11/3/11 4:00 PM
Where: 1005 GBSF