Spectroscopic Measurements of Lipid Membranes Containing Inositol Headgroups

The research aims to understand the mechanisms behind cellular signals being regulated by associating with patches of tightly packed lipids in membranes. To address this phenomenon, we start by characterizing the packing dependence on phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine headgroup interactions within the membrane using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) Spectroscopy. EPR signals from lipid samples containing EPR sensitive probes were measured to determine the order parameter of the lipids to characterize the overall stability of the membrane. Furthermore, we developed a new methodology for primary EPR data analysis using MATLAB modeling scripts.

Mentor: Horia Petrache