| Bicelles and liposomes have proven to have potential as membrane models, drug delivery reservoirs, and therapeutic vectors. Recently, our lab was able to deposit a lipid bilayer on 3microm polystyrene beads. This was done via hydrophobic anchoring of bicelles containing CHOLOA, a modified cholesterol moiety covalently bonded to a PEG150 linker with an oxyamine functional group, reacting with aldehyde groups on the surface of PS beads. The reaction of both functional groups lead to the covalent binding of the polystyrene beads to the bicelles.;This thesis extends the efforts of this project by altering a couple of aspects of this system. Most importantly, CHOLOA's ethylene glycol length was increased to assess the effect that had on the efficiency of binding to the beads. A CHOLOA derivative with ten ethylene glycol units was successfully synthesized, incorporated into liposomes, and bound to glass microbeads. |
