Thermal analysis of lipids, proteins and biological membranes. A review and summary of some recent studies.

Scanning microcalorimetry in studying temperature-induced changes in proteins.

The recognition that biological cells exploit the water-oil interfacial activity of certain lipids to define anatomical boundaries has, in recent years, encouraged many workers in this laboratory* and others to develop and study protein-free model membrane systems prepared with such compounds A considerable technical advance was made more than 10 years ago, when Mueller et al (1962a,b) first reported a method for preparing usable preparations of bimolecular membrane from membrane molecules, the so-called black lipid membranes or BLMs The merits of this powerful technique were quickly realized, and, as with Aladdin’s lamp, a property requested was a property acquired! Indeed, it might be said that the skeptics themselves were the holders of the lamp, because it was they who, by dismissing the model as unrealistic for a succession of reasons, indicated explicitly the characteristic implicit (passive) properties of a biological membrane: before very long, the earlier convictions of the Langmuir-Hardy-Rideal schools of surface chemistry, relating the role of amphiphilic molecules to biological membrane structure, were vindicated

Joshua. Justin

Papers

A Differential Scanning Calorimeter for Quantitative Differential Thermal Analysis.