Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 38: Membranes and Vesicles I
BP 38.4: Talk
Wednesday, March 22, 2017, 10:30–10:45, HÜL 386
Distance-Dependent Structures of Interacting Membranes Displaying Synthetic Polymers and Wild-Type Bacterial Lipopolysaccharides — •Ignacio Rodriguez Loureiro1, Ernesto Scoppola1, Victoria Latza1, Luca Bertinetti1, Aurelio Barbetta1,2, Giovanna Fragneto3, and Emanuel Schneck1 — 1Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany — 2Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule, France — 3Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France
Polymer brushes are found on the surfaces of important classes of biological membranes, such as lipopolysaccharides on bacterial outer membranes. The latter mediate the interaction with other bacteria and thus influence the physical properties of bacterial biofilms. But interacting polymer brushes are also of technological relevance, for instance in the field of surface lubrication. The interaction between polymer-decorated surfaces is coupled to the distance-dependent conformation of the polymer chains. This problem has been addressed by theory, but accurate experimental data on polymer conformations under confinement are rare. Here, we utilize neutron reflectometry (NR) to determine the distance-dependent structure of interacting lipid membrane surfaces decorated with hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) brushes. To gain insight into bacterial interactions in biofilms we also investigate the structure of two interacting surfaces formed by wild-type bacterial lipopolysaccharides with strain-specific O-side chains.