The study of the molecular mechanisms used by cells for the assembly of membranes is the principal focus of the instrumentation being developed in this project. The lipid bilayer of membranes has been shown to self-assemble at a critical point, T*, which is identical to the physiological temperature, previously measured by equilibrium thermodynamic methods. Evaluation of T* under equilibrium conditions has been limited by the intrinsic slowness of the bilayer assembly processes at the critical point. Thus, a measurement of T* is limited by the speed at which equilibrium is reached, and may take several weeks to complete. We have developed a scanning method for measuring T* that obviates the need to wait for equilibrium and allows a complete T* measurement in several hours. This method is now being implemented for large-scale measurement of membrane samples for the detection of lipid-based metabolic defects in neurological tissues.
