Intermolecular interactions between molecules on the surface of cells

Significant effort is currently being devoted to the study of molecules in cell membranes in order to better understand how the human body functions and how to produce more efficient drugs. However, our knowledge about how different molecules in the cell membrane are organized and interact with each other remains limited. The aim of this project is to utilize a new technique, called the hydrodynamic trap, to measure intermolecular forces between molecules on the surface of cells. The hydrodynamic trap uses the liquid flow out of a small pipette to trap and accumulate membrane-associated molecules, and was recently developed by me at the University of Cambridge, UK. The novel information obtained from these experiments will be used to investigate how molecules interact in a cell membrane, why some membrane proteins forms complexes or aggregates, and how changes in the local concentration on the cell surface affects how the cell signals, to mention a few important examples. I also intend to use this technique to locally deliver molecules to the surface of cells to investigate where on the surface certain damaging species, or pharmaceuticals, interact with the cell. These examples are all important biological problems whose answers might help in developing new treatments for people with diseases that are currently hard to treat, as for example autoimmune or neurodegenerative diseases.