Biological & Soft Matter Seminar: Taking osmolytes to heart

Abstract:

To counteract environmental stress, many organisms regulate the amounts of molecularly small solutes termed osmolytes. Recent evidences show that osmolytes such as TMAO have a detrimental contribution to cardiovascular disease, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. At the molecular level, many osmolytes that are fully permeable through self-assembled lipid membranes exert an apparent attractive force between the membranes, yet all proposed models fail to fully account for the origin of this force. This talk will shed light on the mechanism by which TMAO and other osmolytes modulate lipid interactions, with potential links to the recently realized consequences to health and disease.