Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 21: Membranes and Vesicles II

BP 21.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 15:30–15:45, H46

Optothermal manipulation of lipid membranes — •Patrick Urban, Silke Kirchner, Theobald Lohmüller, and Jochen Feldmann — Photonics and Optoelectronics Group, Physics Department and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Amalienstrasse 54, 80779 München, Germany

Light absorbed by gold nanoparticles is very efficiently transformed into heat. Such particles can thus be used as small and localized heat sources that can be switched on and off by a short light pulse.

In our work, we take advantage of this property to investigate the physical consequences of heating on lipid membranes and thermosensitive trans-membrane proteins.

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) made of diphytanoylphosphatidylcholine (DPhPC) are prepared by electroformation and functionalized with 80 nm Au-nanoparticles. The particles are heated with a short laser pulse at the particle resonance frequency. The amount of heat can be controlled by the laser power and the pulse duration. The consequences of localized heating on the membrane properties are investigated by planar patch-clamp and fluorescence methods. Besides membrane studies, we aim to extend our approach to investigations of thermosensitive transmembrane proteins that are incorporated in the phospholipid bilayer.