2015 REU Poster: Quantifying Extracted Lipid Membrane Composition of Gold Nanoparticles
Phanord, Julie
Gold Nanoparticles(Au NPs) have been the object of profound studies regarding their distinctive physical and biological properties, as well as their promising applications as drug carriers in the field of bio-medical engineering. Lipid wrapped Au NPs are emerging up as a novel bio-medical tool in the field of bio-imaging and target-delivery due to their enhanced bio-compatibility and extended lipid based bio-functions. Interestingly, the lipid membrane behavior supported by the surface of Au NPs could substantially differ from its precursor, liposomes, in which lipid membrane can flow in a relatively free fashion. This research aims to characterize and validate such difference and explore the intrinsic reasons behind such difference, such as lipids content variation before and after wrapping. In this research, lipid membrane behavior was mostly focused on the phase transition of lipid membrane. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) strategy was taken to quantify such potential phase transition of lipid membrane in the free liposomes and on the surface of Au NPs. In addition to the DSC method, a High Performance Liquid Chromatography Mass-spectrometry method was developed as well to quantify the potential lipids content variation before and after lipid membrane wrapping.
Poster presentation at REU Summer's End Research Symposium, 2015, by REU participant Julie Phanord, Bunker Hill Community College - Bjoern Reinhard group, Fangda Xu lab mentor
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