Morandi Mattia, Disruption of model membranes’ phase behavior upon interaction with hydrophilic/hydrophobic molecules (2017)

This work focuses on the alterations of lipid membrane phase behavior upon interaction with hydrophobic and hydophilic molecules. One major aspect of this thesis is the employement of environment sensitive probes to obtain information on the lipid bilayer packing by means of confocal spectral imaging and fluorescence spectroscopy. Our results show that polystyrene, a commonly found plastic in ocean wastes, has the ability to disrupt the lipid bilayer phase behavior and has a competitive interaction with cholesterol. The presence of high concentration of sugars, relevant in the field of biopreservation, has been found to alter the lipid bilayer packing and a new thermodynamics model has been proposed to complement the experimental results. Finally, the effects of an amphiphilic cholesterol-grafted polymer on model membrane was investigated, providing insight into potential new lipid therapeutic strategies.

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