Mast cells, which participate in the allergic response, are stimulated with a multivalent ligand (or antigen). Green is IgE bound to its high-affinity receptor; red is phosphotyrosine; and blue are actin filaments that result from stimulated polymerization.

Our long-term goal is to understand structure-function relationships of biomembranes, as well as to probe the spatio-temporal molecular dynamics that are crucial for cell signaling.

We tackle these complex biophysical problems with an array of cross-disciplinary tools, ranging from state-of-the-art optical microscopy and microfabrication to model membranes and lipid biochemistry to cell and molecular biology.

The analytical and physical tools we are developing will not only provide molecular-level understanding of lipid nanostructures in membranes but also will find materials and optics applications.

NEWS:

September 2006:  Angel Davey received a travel award from the American Society for Cell Biology to attend the 2006 National Meeting in San Diego in December.

September 2006: Erin Sheets organized the Membrane Biophysics Symposium with Tobias Baumgart (U Penn Chemistry) at the Fall 2006 American Chemical Society Meeting in San Francisco.

August 2006: Minjoung Kyoung and Angel Davey are awarded 2006 Dalalian Awards from the Penn State Chemistry Department for their research accomplishments.

August 2006: Minjoung Kyoung was awarded a Newport Spectra-Physics Research Excellence Travel Award to attend the 2006 SPIE Optics & Photonics Meeting in San Diego.