February 20 , 2008
3pm in Howey Physics Lecture Room 5

 

Martin Forstner
College of Chemistry
University of California - Berkeley

 

"Bio-Membranes: Structured, Adaptive and Dynamic
- New Insights from in vivo and in vitro Experiments"

Lipid membranes are an essential building block of all cellular life, separating the inside of a cell from the outside and compartmentalizing the cell interior.  Once thought of as passive and featureless environments for membrane proteins, a new picture of bio-membranes has begun to emerge that paints them as structured, complex fluids that are organized on many time and length scales. Recent advances in optical microscopy and spectroscopy techniques have facilitated the study, on a single molecule level, of membrane structure, membrane interactions with proteins and their underlying physics. New results on both bio-mimetic model membranes and live cell membranes not only gives credence to the new membrane model, but also point towards a much more active role for membranes in the fascinating physicochemical machinery of cellular life.