Invited Paper BI-ThM7
Rupture, Spreading, and Healing of 2D Fluid Lipid Bilayers at Chemically and Topographically Structured Surfaces

Thursday, October 18, 2007, 10:00 am, Room 609

Interfacial organization of lipids and amphiphiles into a discrete number of molecular layers provides, arguably, one of the most pristine experimental realizations of self-organized, two-dimensional systems. it provides an experimental test-bed for the study of a rich variety of interface-dominated processes, including surface melting, low-dimensional phase transitions, surface dynamics, and phase coexistence and separation. This talk will present recent experimental evidence from our laboratories which highlight the importance of substrate structure (e.g., topography, charge, and surface energies) in influencing the dynamics of formation of interfacial single lipid bilayers and their equilibrium morphologies. This work is performed in collaboration with Babak Sanii, Michelle Smith, Alan Szmodis, Adrian Brozell, and Michael Howland. The work is supported by a grant from U.S. Department of Energy.