Biophysics Seminar

I will illustrate my talk with several cases where neutron and X-ray scattering has been successfully applied to investigate model lipid membranes and their interaction with proteins, including toxins. For example, the non-perturbative nature of neutrons coupled with their isotopic sensitivity and penetrability has made them an (almost) ideal tool to study lipid membranes and other model biological interfaces in different environments. After a brief introduction to the methodology of neutron and x-ray scattering, I will provide several examples of my studies in systems like (i) supported lipid membranes, (ii) interactions of lipid membranes with proteins, and, if time allows, (iii) monolayers of living cell cultures under mechanical stress. Hopefully, I could convince the audience that the surface scattering methodologies can be useful to characterize biology-related systems and their responses to external stimuli, such as pH, temperature, and flow shear. * * *Short CV: Until March 2025, Dr. Jaroslaw (Jarek) Majewski was a Permanent Program Director at the US National Science Foundation. Currently, he is on a sabbatical leave as an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw, Poland.He graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and, until 2017, served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, at the University of California, Davis. Now, he is a Research Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He published 200+ peer-reviewed papers and gave an app. 200+ invited talks and over 200 other presentations. He is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and the Neutron Scattering Society of America. Part of his scientific career (1995-2019) has been spent at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where he built a successful X-ray and neutron scattering program to address interfacial structures and properties of materials. His interests span from bio-interfaces and soft-condensed systems to hard-condensed hetero-structures, electrochemistry, and actinides.