Professor Tatyana Smirnova
Department of Chemistry
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

Monday, June 6, 2022
3:00 pm (CT)

Abstract

Rational design of new bionano hybrid systems incorporating cellular membranes calls for understanding and accounting for the influence of nano support and nano confinement on the structure and properties of lipid bilayers, lipidsolid, and lipidprotein interfaces. Further progress in this field requires development of spectroscopic methods capable of characterizing highly heterogenous interfaces and, particularly, water presence and interfacial electrostatic properties, all with high spatial resolution. The goal of our work is to develop spinlabeling EPR methods for assessing lipid membrane surface potential, local environment at the protein membrane interface, and water penetration along this interface and their effect on effective pKa of model ionizable groups at membrane protein surface.

https://chemistry.sciences.ncsu.edu/people/tismirno/