LABORATORY OF BIOPHYSICS OF MEMBRANES

 Research line

Water and its states of aggregation in membranes and aqueous systems.

The sensitivity of the near-infrared spectrum (750-2500 nm) to the strength of the O-H bond is exploited in order to study the interaction between water and components that perturb its aggregation state, such as membrane phospholipids. The experimental design involves the modification of these components in terms of their type and/or concentration (e.g. phospholipids, steroids, solutes), with water serving as the probe to assess the effects of these components on the biophysical properties of the system under investigation. Multivariate analysis methods, such as PCA, PLS, Principal Coordinates Regression, Logistic Regression and MLR, are employed to analyse the spectra, thereby facilitating the determination of the effect of H-bond networks.