Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

SYAT: Symposium Anomalous Transport in Heterogeneous Media - from Porous Materials to Cellular Crowding

SYAT 1: Anomalous Transport in Heterogeneous Media I

SYAT 1.3: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 15:30–16:00, H1

Exploring Diffusion in Nanostructured Systems with Single Molecule Probes: From Nanoporous Materials to Living Cells — •Christoph Bräuchle — Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center for Nanoscience (CeNS), LMU München, Butenandtstr. 11, D-81377 München/Germany

Molecular movement in confined spaces is of broad scientific and technological importance in areas ranging from molecular sieving and membrane separation to active transport along intracellular networks. Whereas measurements of ensemble diffusion provide information about the overall behaviour of the guests in a nanoporous host, tracking of individual molecules provides insight into both the heterogeneity and the mechanistic details of the molecular diffusion as well as into the structure of the host. Here we show how single dye molecules act as beacons while they diffuse through the different structural phases of the host. A unique combination of transmission electron microscopy and single molecule tracking reveals unprecedented details of the movement of a molecule, how it varies its mobility and bounces off a domain boundary or travels through various defect structures and adsorption sites. Furthermore, investigations of the uptake and trafficking of artificial viruses in living cells will show three different phases of mobility of these nanoparticles during their transfection pathway into a living cell.