MasterNanosciences, nanotechnologies

The student will work on the preparation and physico-chemical characterization of lipid monolayers and bilayers to reproduce the surface of Gram-negative bacteria.
In particular, the work will consist in

1. the study of the interactions between lipopolysaccharides and antimicrobial compounds (AMs), in order to understand how the nature of the AMs affects the degradation of bacterial membranes, and 
2. the optimization of the preparation protocols to form asymmetric bilayers from phospholipid:lipopolysaccharide vesicles or peptide-stabilized nanodiscs.

The student will study the interfacial structure and elasticity of lipid monolayers by measuring Langmuir isotherms using different subphases, and its homogeneity by imaging with a Brewster angle microscope. For the bilayer formation, the studies will be carried out by Quartz-crystal microbalance, to look at the variation of the adsorbed “wet” mass and film viscoelasticity, and by Ellipsometry to determine the “dry” film thickness.
Once this first part of the research project will be successfully concluded, the work will be dedicated to study lipid-protein interaction using selective sugar-binding proteins (lectins).