Phase Transitions in Biological Soft Condensed Matter - From Protein Condensation Disease to Lipid Based Gene Delivery

by Dr J. McManus (MIT, Cambridge, USA)

Monday 17 Mar 2008, 15:00 → 17:00 Europe/Rome

aula Conversi (Dip.di Fisica - Edificio Marconi)

I will discuss two systems at the interface of physics and biology: (i) a non-toxic synthetic DNA delivery system, with a multilamellar structure, studied by SAXS. (ii) The phase diagram of a mutant of ?-D crystallin. The mutation does not affect significantly the physico-chemical and structural properties of the protein, but profoundly alters the phase boundary between the liquid phase and a condensed aggregated phase.