Subramaniam Lab Receives Cover to ACS Publication, Langmuir
The Subramaniam Lab was recently given the cover to ACS Publication, Langmuir! Congratulations, Professor Subramaniam, Joseph Pazzi and Melissa Xu!
"Cover image by Joseph Pazzi and Anand Bala Subramaniam. The image is a false-colored scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of folded and cut cotton fabric overlaid with a false-colored single-plane confocal fluorescence image of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) harvested from the fabric. The three-dimensional plots are histograms of the size distributions of the GUVs obtained from three grades of filter paper and cotton fabric. Quantification of statistically large sample sizes revealed that the GUV populations have an asymmetric distribution of diameters. Such asymmetric distributions occur in other colloidal systems. The results reveal underappreciated similarities between the growth of GUVs and the growth of other colloidal materials and suggest possible commonalities in dynamics. For more information, see “Size Distributions and Yields of Giant Vesicles Assembled on Cellulose Papers and Cotton Fabric” by Joseph Pazzi, Melissa Xu, and Anand Bala Subramaniam (DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b03076)." https://pubs.acs.org/toc/langd5/35/24?cookieSet=1
Abstract:
Lamellar phospholipid stacks on cellulose paper vesiculate to form cell-like giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) in aqueous solutions. The sizes and yields of the GUVs that result and their relationship to the properties of the cellulose fibers are unknown. Here, we report the characteristics of GUVs produced on four different cellulose substrates, three disordered porous media consisting of randomly entangled cellulose fibers (high-purity cellulose filter papers of different effective porosities), and an ordered network of weaved cellulose fibers (cotton fabric). Large numbers of GUVs formed on all four substrates. This result demonstrates for the first time that GUVs form on cotton fabric. Despite differences in the effective porosities and the configuration of the cellulose fibers, all four substrates yielded populations of GUVs with similar distribution of diameters. The distribution of diameters of the GUVs had a single well-defined peak and a right tail. Ninety-eight percent of the GUVs had diameters less than the average diameter of the cellulose fibers (∼20 micrometers). Cotton fabric produced the highest yield of GUVs with the lowest sample-to-sample variation. Moreover, cotton fabric is reusable. Fabric used sequentially produced similar crops of GUVs at each cycle. At the end of the sequence, there was no apparent change in the cellulose fibers. Cellulose fibers thus promote the vesiculation of lamellar phospholipid stacks in aqueous solutions.
