The plasma membrane is at the centre of a cell's interaction with the outside world. It is thus imperative to understand and study the influence of additives on the lipid bilayer, which forms the backbone of the plasma membrane and affects protein activity and response. A particularly interesting set of additives are <i>n</i>-alcohols, specifically primary alcohols whom differ in only their carbon tail chain length. They are commonly found in numerous environments and industries: from the alcoholic liquor and beer industry to food and cosmetics. Not only that, they have been studied due to their anesthetic ability that disappears at an apparent carbon length "cut-off." To potentially uncover an underlying mechanism of their behaviour, we employed a plethora of biophysical techniques, such as small angle scattering and molecular dynamics simulation, to investigate the effects of primary alcohols on the lateral and transverse organization of lipids within biomembrane mimics.

Investigating the role of <i>n</i>-alcohols on biomembrane lipid organization

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Investigating the role of n-alcohols on biomembrane lipid organization