Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

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Forschung

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Starting in 2019, we establish a state-of-the-art lipid platform within the BMBF financed Center of Innovation Competence (ZIK) "HALOmem" at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Our facility is open for all institutes of the Faculties of Natural Sciences I and II. It provides a platform for model membrane preparation, characterisation of model membranes and structural investigation of peripheral membrane proteins.

My own research focus lies on morphological and structural studies of peripheral membrane proteins, fluorinated surfactants for membrane-protein research, and phosphatidylserine enriched phospholipids as anti-inflammatory agents.

We study the supramolecular arrangement of peripheral membrane proteins (N-BAR) on membranes, where we pay special attention to the composition of the sarcolemma membrane. We could show that the membrane lipid composition is crucial for N-BAR binding and membrane curvature generation. Using cryo-ET, we found that N-BAR domains assemble into scaffolds of low long-range order that form flexible membrane tubules. These insights are fundamental to our understanding of T-tubule formation and function in human skeletal muscle.

The second key aspect of my research, in part together with collaboration partners, is the self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules, such as lipids, bolalipids, (fluorinated) surfactants, block-copolymers, core-shell polymers, as well as the interaction of surfactants, peptides and proteins with model membranes (vesicles and monolayers). Here we use negative stain EM, cryo-EM, and DLS to elucidate the structure of the self-assembled aggregates. Furthermore, we apply the monolayer film balance technique to study the driving forces for self-assembly and membrane interaction processes.

I am currently a scientific collaborator in the HALOmem Institute, jointly associated with the Kastritis and Stubbs laboratories. Our work focuses on membrane systems to understand structural organization in cell extracts using a combination of physical-chemical and cryo-electron microscopic methods.

Polymer-dekorierte Vesikel
(P. Scholtysek)

Polymer-dekorierte Vesikel (P. Scholtysek)

Polymer-dekorierte Vesikel
(P. Scholtysek)

Flüssigkristall-dekorierte Vesikel
(B.-D. Lechner)

Flüssigkristall-dekorierte Vesikel (B.-D. Lechner)

Flüssigkristall-dekorierte Vesikel
(B.-D. Lechner)

Bacterial model membrane vesicles
(S. Finger)

Bacterial model membrane vesicles (S. Finger)

Bacterial model membrane vesicles
(S. Finger)

Bolalipid-DPPC discs
(S. Drescher)

Bolalipid-DPPC discs (S. Drescher)

Bolalipid-DPPC discs
(S. Drescher)

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