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Robin Smith is a graduate student with Jerry Feigenson's Membrane Biophysics group. She studies models for the cell membrane using spectroscopy and computation. The cell membrane is a complex mixture of lipids, cholesterol, and proteins. To examine how lipids organize to promote protein function, she focuses on a chemically simplified three-component mixture containing cholesterol plus one lipid with a melting temperature below freezing and a second with a physiological melting temperature around 37 C. These three components give rise to rich phase behavior, including coexistence of ordered and disordered liquid crystalline plus gel phases as a function of temperature and composition. Coexisting ordered and disordered liquid phases form round domains that don't mix, just like oil and water, says Robin. These domains are also believed to exist on a sub-micron scale in the cell membrane. The packing order and diffusion rates exhibited by the lipids in these phases differ. In particular, cholesterol stiffens the membrane to create a liquid-ordered phase believed to be preferred by certain proteins.
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