Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 10: Posters I
DY 10.12: Poster
Montag, 14. März 2011, 17:00–19:00, P4
How glassy are biological membranes? — •Sebastian Busch1, Luis Carlos Pardo2, and Tobias Unruh3 — 1Technische Universität München, Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) and Physik Department E13, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany — 2Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Grup de Caracterització de Materials, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain) — 3Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lehrstuhl für Kristallographie und Strukturphysik, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Biological membranes surround every cell and are important in pharmaceutical and food industry. Their dynamics is still rather poorly understood: The free volume theory was adapted to the membranes [1] and was a very successful description until it became clear from MD simulations that the molecules exhibit concerted flow-like motions rather than jump-like decaging events [2].
Measuring the self-correlation function of the molecules, the simulations could be supported with quasielastic neutron scattering measurements [3]. The flow-like motions bear a striking resemblance to the dynamical heterogeneities known from glassy dynamics [4].
Which concepts from glass physics can replace the free volume theory for the molecular description of phospholipid dynamics?
[1] W.L.C. Vaz et al., Biophys.J., 60(6):1553, 1991
[2] E. Falck et al., JACS 130(1):44, 2008
[3] S. Busch et al., JACS 132(10):3232, 2010
[4] S. Busch et al., BBA Biomembranes, in print,
doi:10.1016/j.bbamem.2010.10.012