Research Interests

Biophysics of lipid membrane and application of liposome technology

 
  • Biosensor microchip
    This multidisciplinary project involves collaboration of nano-fabrication, liposome technology, and molecular biology. The goal is to design and fabricate a novel artificial-cell based biosensor microchip to be used for high throughput detection of chemical and biological agents, environmental monitoring, clinic diagnosis, and rapid ion channel drug screening.
  • Properties and theory of superlattices
    Cholesterol superlattice is an interesting phenomenon. Cholesterol can adopt a crystal-like lateral distribution (superlattice) in a fluid-phase lipid membrane without the help of rigid chemical bonds. Such structures reflect some unique multibody interactions in biomembranes. We are interested in experimental characterization and the theory of the superlattices.
  • Nonviral DNA delivery
    This collaboration project aims to develop and characterize an effective non-viral DNA vector system for gene therapy. The long-term goal is to create "immunoliposomes" to targeting cell surface receptors for gene and drug delivery.
  • Membrane heterogeneity and anomalous diffusion
    Biomembranes are quite heterogeneous, due to the existence of many micro-domains, such as caveolae and lipid Rafts. Diffusions of biomolecules on a cell membrane are often anomalous, i.e., they don't follow the usual diffusion equation <r^2> = 4Dt. We investigate the anomalous diffusion of cholesterol, phospholipids, and membrane proteins using quantitative microscopy techniques and Monte Carlo simulation.

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