Our paper, led by Miranda, is out in BiophysJ!

Miranda’s paper studying the effects of dietary fatty acids, EPA and DHA, on membrane elasticity is out in Biophysical Journal  1. This work was motivated by the bigger question of why these two fatty acids have different physiological effects (ex. cardiovascular, neurological) and what’s happening at the membrane level to potentially cause these changes.  2. […]

Our paper is out in Angewandte Chemie!

Our paper investigating how DNA tethers enable fusion between specific populations of lipid vesicles and can be used to initiate cell-free reactions is out in Angewandte Chemie. The work was led by Justin Peruzzi and explores how membrane domains can enhance membrane fusion and thereby increase the yield of encapsulated cell-free expression reactions.  Great job […]

Our work is out in ACS Synthetic Biology!

Our work designing a system to control vesicle secretion, led by Kamat Lab undergrad Claire Hilburger, is out in ACS Synthetic Biology. Our work presents the design of a membrane AND gate that incorporates membrane-associating molecules as inputs that work in conjunction to control vesicle secretion. We’re thinking about 1) how to harness changes in membrane composition to […]

Our paper is out in PNAS!

Our paper investigating how bilayer vesicles containing diblock copolymers enhance the cell-free expression and folding of a mechanosensitive channel protein is out in PNAS. The work was led by Miranda Jacobs and reveals the role of membrane surface area and the membrane area expansion modulus in enhancing protein folding efficiency and yield. Great job by Kamat Lab members, […]

Our paper is out and highlighted in Biophysical Journal!

Our paper, led by second year BME graduate student Maggie Boyd, describes a new method to simultaneously monitor surface area and tension in bilayer membranes and is out in Biophys J. We’re exploring how we can use dyes to spatially map changes in membrane tension and membrane growth in real time. Great work, Maggie!

Neha and Derek’s paper is out in JACS

Our paper demonstrates the non-enzymatic copying of mixed-sequence RNA templates inside model protocells. In addition, we show how environmental conditions like elevated temperature and divalent cations, that help the replication reaction, also help RNA substrates enter the vesicle membrane.

Neha and Lin’s paper is out in Small

Our paper describes how vesicle composition can be changed to enhance encapsulated reactions and how this feature may have facilitated a transition in membrane composition between primitive and modern cells.