Cells, the basic units of living organisms, are well delineated and separated from the external environment by membranes. Capable of both enclosing the cellular constituents and allowing exchanges with the outside world, these membranes are only a few nanometers thick. To study the dynamics and function of these amazing objects, physicists first seek to understand their structure. This involves experiments on model systems, simpler and better controlled than real membranes, and can profit from a probe that is able to access different scales of size and time: thermal neutrons.<br/><br/>Since the pioneering work in the seventies on cell membrane structure by neutron scattering, developments driven by constantly improving neutron instrumentation, coupled with development of measurement and analysis methods, have involved both the optimization of samples towards more biologically relevant model systems and include the use of more complex lipid mixtures up to natural extracts. A natural lipid deuteriation facility has been set-up at the ILL (http://www.ill.eu/L-Lab) and recent results on lipid production and characterisationn will be presented.<br/><br/>Recent developments in the study of the structure of membranes will be presented including neutron and x-ray reflectometry study of the out-of-equilibrium fluctuations of phospholipid membranes induced by the active transmembrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR). A detergent-mediated incorporation method was used to incorporate BR in model planar bilayers and structural modifications induced by light activation were measured.

Planar lipid bilayers as model biological membranes for structural neutron studies

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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