Chemistry Seminar Series: Nano-vision of Nano-invasion

Biographical Information

Prof. Wuge Briscoe is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the School of Chemistry, University of Bristol. After his PhD at the University of South Australia, Wuge spent several years in Oxford as an EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Life Science Interface and a (Guy Newton) Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, before joining Bristol. Wuge’s research interests include self-organisation of soft matter, surface forces mediated by surfactants, polymers and nanofluids, and fundamental aspects of biolubrication, nanotoxicity, bacterial membranes, and eco-formulation.

Abstract

A key mechanism for nanoparticles (NPs) to impart toxicity is to gain cellular entry directly. Many parameters affect the interactions of nanomaterials in a cellular environment with cell membranes, including their size, shape and surface chemistry [1, 2]. We have used model membrane systems and physicochemical methodologies to study nanoparticle-membrane interactions [3-8]. Our results from high pressure small angle X-ray scattering (HP-SAXS) show that hydrophobic nanoparticles could encourage the lamellar to inverted hexagonal phase transition [3], whereas the effect of hydrophilic nanoparticles depends on their concentration [4], with more recent work showing that dendritic polymer nanoparticles could cause membrane thinning and structural disorder in lipid mesophases [5]. Furthermore, using X-ray reflectivity (XRR), we have observed structural re-organization in supported lipid bilayers intercalated with quantum dots [6, 7] and dendritic nanoparticles [8]. These results offer mechanistic insights into how the fundamental energetic process of NP cellular entry can be evaluated by studying the effects of nanoparticles on lipid mesophase transitions and structural disorder. This highlights both the challenge and the opportunity in this interdisciplinary area, where collaborative efforts from the insights and expertise of biological and physical scientists are urgently needed for future progress.

References

[1] C.M. Beddoes et al., Adv Colloid Interface Sci 218 (2015) 48.
[2] L.J. Fox et al., Adv Colloid Interface Sci 257 (2018) 1.
[3] J.M. Bulpett et al., Soft Matter 11 (2015) 8789.
[4] C.M. Beddoes et al., Soft Matter 12 (2016) 6049.
[5] L.J. Fox et al., Acta Biomaterialia 104 (2020) 198
[6] M. Wlodek et al., Nanoscale 10 (2018) 17965.
[7] M. Wlodek et al., Journal of colloid and interface science 562 (2020) 409.
[8] L.J. Fox et al., Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 1865 (2021) 129542.