WHAT: Using Fluorescence Microscopy to Optimize phase               segregation in mixed lipid bilayer

As part of his M.Sc. project to study mechanisms of interaction of cationic antimicrobial peptides and bacterial cell membranes, Jon West developed methods to prepare supported lipid bilayers (SBL) with 2 different lipid components, intended for later study using STXM. The figure shows 6 time points in the development of the phase segregated SLB as a 25:75 mol% mixture of 1,2-di-(9Z-octadecenoyl)-sn-glycero3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1,2-dioctadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC) as the
mixture slowly cools from an initially homogeneous solution at 70 C.

OTHER INFORMATION: A movie of the DOPC-25 / DSPC-75 phase segregation can be viewed here