Structure and Dynamics of Membranous Interfaces

Kaushik Nag, PhD , is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Physics at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. His research interests include biophysical and structural biochemistry of lipid-protein systems in lung surfactants and biomembranes. In addition, Dr. Nag is involved in using Langmuir films, giant liposome, Deuterium-NMR, fluorescence and atomic force microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, Raman/IR imaging, and molecular dynamics simulations to study lung surfactant and biomembrane structure and dysfunction. He is the recipient of a prestigious five-year New Investigator Grant from the CIHR and major infrastructure funding from CFI and NSERC for Surface Nanobiology Laboratory.

Introduction. Part I: Membrane Structure. 1. The Membrane Interface as a Structured Compartment and a Substrate for Enzyme Action (Ole G. Mouritsen Luis A. Bagatolli, and Adam C. Simonsen). 2. Tof-SIMS Imaging of Lipid/Protein Model Systems (Michael Seifert, Mohammed Saleem, Daniel Breitenstein, Hans-Joachim Galla, and Michaela C. Meyera). 3. Flexibility and Structure of Fluid Bilayer Interfaces (Michael Rappolt and Georg Pabst). 4. X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Lung Surfactant Membrane Structures (Marcus Larsson). 5. Neutron and X-Ray Scattering from Isotropic and Aligned Membranes (J. Katsaras, J. Pencer, M. -P. Nieh, T. Abraham, N. Kucerka, and Thad A. Harrown). Part II: Dynamics and Molecular Events At Membrane Interfaces. 6. Interaction of Plasma Proteins with Phospholipids at Interfaces (Chia-Lin Yin, D. Dorcas, Anna Dudek, and Chien-Hsiang Chang). 7. Monitoring of Membrane-Associated Protein Binkding and of Enzyme Activity in Monolayers at the Air-Water Interface by Infrared Spectroscopy (Sylvain Bussieres, Julie Boucher, Philippe Desmeules, Michel Grandbois Bernard Desbat, and Christian Salesse). 8. Chirality and Dipolar Interactions of Membrane Mimetic Amphiphilic Molecules (Nilashis Nandi, K. Thirumoorthy, and Dieter Vollhardt). 9. Organic and Inorganic Osmolytes at Lipid Membrane Interfaces (Peter Westh and Gunther H. Peters). 10. Protein Lipid Interactions from a Molecular Dynamics Simulation Point of View (Christian Kandt, Edit Matyus, and D. Peter Tieleman). Part II: Complex Membranous Systems. 11. Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Membranous Systems (Salim Sioud, Nicolas Joly, Patrick Martin, and Joseph Banoub). 12. Thermodynamics of the Nervous Impulse (Thomas Heimburg and Andrew D. Jackson). 13. Relationships Between Surface Viscosity, Monolayer Phase Behavior, and the Stability of Lung Surfactant Monolayers (Joseph A. Zasadzinski, Coralie Alonso, Junqi Ding, Frank Bringezu, Heidi Warriner, Tim Alig, Siegfried Steltenkamp, and Alan J. Waring). 14. A Cursory Glance at the Phyiscochemical Properties of Oppositely Charged Surfactants in Solution and at the Air-Water Interface (Amiya Kumar Panda and Kaushik Nag). 15. Phase Transitions, Cholesterol and Raft Structures in Films and Bilayers of a Natural Membranous System (Kaushik Nag, Mauricia Fritzen-Garcia, Ravi Devraj, Ashley Hillier, and Doyle Rose). Index.