| Regional Biophysics Meeting 2005, March 16-20, Zreče, Slovenia | [MembBiophys] |
Over the last decade or so global x-ray and neutron diffraction data analysis of biological model membranes has received considerable amount of scientific attention. The reason is that this technique allows the determination of global structural as well as elastic membrane properties close to conditions found in biological membranes. Henceforth, local changes to the bilayer by e.g. interactions with a membrane active compound can be related to a global adjustment of structure or elasticity. In turn, global membrane properties affect their local susceptibility for such an interaction. We will review the presently developed techniques both for diffraction from vesicles and solid supported multibilayers and discuss advantages, disadvantages and challenges. We will further present a series of application examples both for single-component and multi-component membranes.
Email: Georg.Pabst@oeaw.ac.at
Address: Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042 Graz, Austria