The alveoli (air cells) in the lungs are coated with a lining of pulmonary surfactant which is a complex of lipids, proteins and glycolipids. This surfactant is essential to normal pulmonary behavior and its disruptions are implicated in abnormal lung functioning. Dr. Amador will use a new technique, fluorescence microscopy of model pulmonary surfactants spread upon the surface of water to correlate the physiological effects of various native and replacement surfactant systems with their microscopic phase behavior and the dependence of this behavior upon biochemical composition. The goal of this project is to enhance our understanding of the phase behavior and aggregational properties of surfactant systems.
