主  题：BN nanosheet induces phase transformation in lipid membrane

    报告人：Jun Fan 教授

    时  间：2017年9月29日（周五）下午15:00

    地  点：高研院会议室（建工楼B1210）

【报告人简介】 Dr. Jun Fan works at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Fan received her bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing (1999), Master’s degree from McMaster University, Canada (2003), and Ph.D. degree from Princeton University, USA (2011). She worked under Prof. Mikko Haataja for her Ph.D. thesis and focused on the structure and dynamics of cell membranes. Afterwards, she moved to the University of Chicago, USA for as a postdoctoral researcher (2011-2013). She explored the structure, function and mechanical properties of cell membrane and protein complexes, using molecular dynamics simulations and coarse- grained approaches.

    Boron nitride nanosheets are novel promising nanomaterials, which have a great potential in biomedical applications. However, there are very few reports about how they interact with the cell membrane.  Here we employed large scale all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to study the interactions between boron nitride nanosheets and lipid membranes. Six different single component lipid membranes are examined. Our results reveal that the boron nitride nanosheet can extract phospholipids from the lipid bilayers and finally is enveloped by the membrane, which in turn affects the structural and mechanical properties of the bilayers. The bending moduli of the six bilayers all increase, while the diffusivity of individual lipid molecules all decreases. The corresponding molecular mechanism is that the acyl chains of local lipid molecules re-orient and become more ordered after the insertion of the boron nitride nanosheet. Particularly, the insertion of nanosheet induces a phase transition one of the bilayers. Our study provides novel insights into the biocompatibility of boron nitride nanosheets, which may facilitate the design of safer nano-carrier, antibiotics and other bio-nanotechnology applications.

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