Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Computational Investigation Of Biological Membranes, Allyson Karmazyn

Theses - ALL

Lipids are the building blocks of biological membranes, and the types of lipids that compose these cellular envelopes influence the physicochemical properties of the chemicals that can enter or exit the cell across the membrane. This work focuses on the lipid membrane compositions of eukaryotic (red blood cells) and prokaryotic (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) membranes. By analyzing the lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions results of the computational simulations, insights into lipid aggregation, bilayer leaflet behavior, membrane asymmetry, and small molecule transport through protein channels were obtained. The differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell membranes are qualitative known; however, this work provides these concepts …