Determining the in-depth structure of lipid bilayers and their components by neutron diffraction

Ella Mihailescu, UC Irvine and NCNR

Knowledge of the structure of fluid lipid bilayers is needed for understanding complex biological phenomena in cell membranes. Neutron diffraction is becoming an increasingly important method of investigation for biological matter, due to advances in instrumentation design, as well as the higher availability of specifically deuterated products.

A summary of experimental results of biological relevance, obtained at the Advanced Neutron Diffractometer/Reflectometer, will be presented. It will be shown, by using various deuteration schemes, that the lipid bilayer and in particular its hydrophobic core is a highly structured medium, on whose organization the the function of various membrane proteins depends. A few analytical tools for treating diffraction data from lipid multilayers will also be presented.

Research supported through Grant NIH-RR14812 from the National Center for Research and Resources, and the University of California at Irvine.

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