Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R28829/01
Title:	Direct Measurements of Single Macromolecule-Membrane Interactions
Principal Investigator:	O'Shea, Professor P
Other Investigators:	Davies, Professor M Allen, Professor S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Biomedical Sciences
Organisation:	University of Nottingham
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 October 2001	Ends:	31 October 2004	Value (£):	348,903
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Chemical Biology Drug Formulation & Delivery
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The principle objective of this project is to develop and apply AFM force spectroscopy to determine the forces and energetic barriers during the course of the removal of a number of membrane bound protein and peptide systems exhibiting various complexities. These will be compared to complementary studies of theinitial binding and membrane penetration of the same molecular species using novel electrostatic and molecular dipolar sensing techniques. Macromolecular systems have been selected that exhibit various (increasing) levels of complexity with the membrane systems and include signal peptides, envelope peptides from HIV, spectrin, albumin and the p-amyloid peptides/proteins. Initially this work will be undertaken with model membranes as monolayers and bilayers. Following this additional studies will involve similar work with single living cells. Finally attempts will be made to study the energies etc of spatially localised interactions on the cell surface and to combine fluorescence and single molecule AFM spectroscopy. Thus, through the systematic study of macromoleculemembrane systems of increasing complexity the outlined studies will aim to provide a universal approach for the unprecedented characterization of the forces and energy landscapes of macromolecule-membrane interactions. It is anticipated that this work will greatly contribute to an understanding of the rationale basis of how molecular species bind and penetrate into (and across) membranes, andalso impact on the development of many new technologies, including in the fields of drug-delivery and tissue engineering .Keywords: Atomic Face Microscopy; Biomolecular Recognition; Cellular engineering and biocompatibility; Surfaces, surface probes and interfaces
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Organisation Website:	http://www.nottingham.ac.uk