Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 82: Membranes and Vesicles II (joint session BP/CPP)

CPP 82.4: Talk

Friday, March 16, 2018, 10:30–10:45, H 2013

Appling forces to model cells using microfluidic systems — •Tom Robinson — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany

Biological cells in their natural environment experience a variety of external forces such as fluidic shear stress, osmotic pressures, and mechanical loads. While membrane proteins are a crucial part of the cellular response to external stimuli, in recent years so called *lipid rafts* have been thought to play an important role in the spatial organization of membrane proteins. Synthetic membranes such as giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) offer a reduced cell model, whereby individual components can be isolated and studied without interference from the complexity of the natural cell. However, applying specific forces to these delicate objects in a controllable manner is non-trivial. To this end, we report a microfluidic method to capture GUVs and apply a variety of forces. The first device contains micro-patterned electrodes which allows the application of electric fields and observations of the subsequent membrane fusion (Robinson et al. Lab on a chip 2014). The second device uses a valve-based system to apply specific fluidic shear forces to membranes (Sturzenegger et al. Soft Matter 2016). Our latest microfluidic design comprises an integrated micro-stamp which is able to mechanically compress GUVs to study the effects of deformation. We investigate the effects of these forces on the behaviour of lipid domains as a model for lipid rafts in cells.