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Dissection the structure and organisation of the membrane of a polarised cell by single molecule diffusion

Reference	BB/C514682/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor David Klenerman
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Roy Jones
Institution	University of Cambridge
Department	Chemistry
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	265,767
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/05/2005
End date	31/07/2008
Duration	39 months

Abstract

The cell membrane is of great importance and the lateral organisation of the lipids and proteins in the membrane determines many important cellular functions. However the current methods to study the membrane of live cells have, to date, produced an unclear and some cases contradictory picture of the structure and it is clear that new biophysical methods are needed. We propose to exploit our ability to controllably and locally deliver molecules from a nanopipette, by the applied voltage, to deliver labelled molecules at a defined position on the cell surface and then follow, by fluorescence their motion and relative motion over the cell membrane. These studies will be performed on the sperm cell which has a reproducible and polarised structure where different regions are anticipated to have different organisation of the membrane. This cell is a paradigm for cell membrane organisation without any active processes. By working at the level of single molecules we can track the diffusion with high precision and observe variation in diffusion, occurrence of confinement and the presence of barriers and produce a diffusional map of the sperm surface. This should provide new and fundamental insights into the cell membrane organisation and the method should be generally applicable.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Biomolecular Sciences (BMS)
Research Topics	Structural Biology, Technology and Methods Development
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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