Pressure-jump X-ray studies of liquid crystal transitions in lipids

Automated high pressure cell for pressure jump x-ray diffraction

A high pressure cell for small and wide-angle x-ray diffraction measurements of soft condensed matter samples has been developed, incorporating a fully automated pressure generating network. The system allows both static and pressure jump measurements in the range of 0.1-500 MPa. Pressure jumps can be performed as quickly as 5 ms, both with increasing and decreasing pressures. Pressure is generated by a motorized high pressure pump, and the system is controlled remotely via a graphical user interface to allow operation by a broad user base, many of whom may have little previous experience of high pressure technology. Samples are loaded through a dedicated port allowing the x-ray windows to remain in place throughout an experiment; this facilitates accurate subtraction of background scattering. The system has been designed specifically for use at beamline I22 at the Diamond Light Source, United Kingdom, and has been fully integrated with the I22 beamline control systems.

Ordered nanostructured amphiphile self-assembly materials from endogenous nonionic unsaturated monoethanolamide lipids in water

The self-assembly, solid state and lyotropic liquid crystalline phase behavior of a series of endogenous n-acylethanolamides (NAEs) with differing degrees of unsaturation, viz., oleoyl monoethanolamide, linoleoyl monoethanolamide, and linolenoyl monoethanolamide, have been examined. The studied molecules are known to possess inherent biological function. Both the monoethanolamide headgroup and the unsaturated hydrophobe are found to be important in dictating the self-assembly behavior of these molecules. In addition, all three molecules form lyotropic liquid crystalline phases in water, including the inverse bicontinuous cubic diamond (Q(II)(D)) and gyroid (Q(II)(G)) phases. The ability of the NAE's to form inverse cubic phases and to be dispersed into ordered nanostructured colloidal particles, cubosomes, in excess water, combined with their endogenous nature and natural medicinal properties, makes this new class of soft mesoporous amphiphile self-assembly materials suitable candidates for investigation in a variety of advanced multifunctional applications, including encapsulation and controlled release of therapeutic agents and incorporation of medical imaging agents.

Colloidal amphiphile self-assembly particles composed of gadolinium oleate and myverol: evaluation as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging

Gadolinium oleate has been added at various concentrations to a Myverol inverse bicontinuous cubic phase forming system, and the potential of these systems as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents has been investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) measurements on the Gd oleate/Myverol systems indicate that Gd oleate is at least partially incorporated within the cubic phase of Myverol. However, at Gd oleate concentrations greater than 1 wt %, partial phase separation of the system may occur with the formation of a Gd-oleate-rich lamellar phase as well as the cubic phase. Bulk Gd oleate/Myverol mixtures can be dispersed into stable colloidal dispersions. SAXS and cryo-TEM measurements on these dispersions indicate that the presence of Gd oleate in the Myverol system prevents the formation of cubosomes from the bulk cubic phase. Instead, the dispersion consists of putative Gd-oleate-rich nonswelling lamellar nanoparticles as well as colloidal particles lacking ordered internal structure. In vitro studies on these dispersions demonstrated that the relaxivity of select Gd oleate/Myverol systems is much higher than that of pure Gd oleate, exemplifying the promise of this system type for magnetic resonance imaging. The highest water proton relaxivities (r(1) = 34.2 mM(-1) s(-1) and r(2) = 27.3 mM(-1) s(-1) at 20 MHz and room temperature) were obtained at a Gd oleate loading concentration of 1 wt %, with a subsequent decrease in relaxivity with increasing Gd oleate concentration. These maximum relaxivities compare favorably with the relaxivities for the commercial contrast agent, Magnevist (r(1) = 4.91 mM(-1) s(-1) and r(2) = 6.26 mM(-1) s(-1) at 20 MHz and room temperature).

Observing self-assembled lipid nanoparticles building order and complexity through low-energy transformation processes

Future nanoscale soft matter design will be driven by the biological paradigms of hierarchical self-assembly and long-lived nonequilibrium states. To reproducibly control the low-energy self-assembly of nanomaterials for the future, we must first learn the lessons of biology. Many cellular organelles exhibit highly ordered cubic membrane structures. Determining the mechanistic origins of such lipid organelle complexity has been elusive. We report the first observation of the complete sequence of major transformations in the conversion from a 1D lamellar membrane to 3D inverse bicontinuous cubic nanostructure. Characterization was enabled by adding a steric stabilizer to dispersions of lipid nanoparticles which increased the lifetime of very short-lived nonequilibrium intermediate structures. By using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering and cryo-transmission electron microscopy we observed and characterized initial lipid bilayer contacts and stalk formation, followed by membrane pore development, pore evolution into 2D hexagonally packed lattices, and finally creation of 3D bicontinuous cubic structures.

Real science at the petascale

We describe computational science research that uses petascale resources to achieve scientific results at unprecedented scales and resolution. The applications span a wide range of domains, from investigation of fundamental problems in turbulence through computational materials science research to biomedical applications at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research and cerebrovascular haemodynamics. This work was mainly performed on the US TeraGrid 'petascale' resource, Ranger, at Texas Advanced Computing Center, in the first half of 2008 when it was the largest computing system in the world available for open scientific research. We have sought to use this petascale supercomputer optimally across application domains and scales, exploiting the excellent parallel scaling performance found on up to at least 32 768 cores for certain of our codes in the so-called 'capability computing' category as well as high-throughput intermediate-scale jobs for ensemble simulations in the 32-512 core range. Furthermore, this activity provides evidence that conventional parallel programming with MPI should be successful at the petascale in the short to medium term. We also report on the parallel performance of some of our codes on up to 65 636 cores on the IBM Blue Gene/P system at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which has recently been named the fastest supercomputer in the world for open science.

Reaching the protein folding speed limit with large, sub-microsecond pressure jumps

Biomolecules are highly pressure-sensitive, but their dynamics upon return to ambient pressure are often too fast to observe with existing approaches. We describe a sample-efficient method capable of large and very fast pressure drops (<1 nanomole, >2,500 atmospheres and <0.7 microseconds). We validated the method by fluorescence-detected refolding of a genetically engineered lambda repressor mutant from its pressure-denatured state. We resolved barrierless structure formation upon return to ambient pressure; we observed a 2.1 +/- 0.7 microsecond refolding time, which is very close to the 'speed limit' for proteins and much faster than the corresponding temperature-jump refolding of the same protein. The ability to experimentally perform a large and very fast pressure drop opens up a new region of the biomolecular energy landscape for atomic-level simulation.

Rheological response and dynamics of the amphiphilic diamond phase from kinetic lattice–Boltzmann simulations

The purpose of the present paper is to report on the first computational study of the dynamical and rheological response of a self-assembled diamond mesophase under Couette flow in a ternary mixture composed of oil, water and an amphiphilic species. The amphiphilic diamond mesophase arises in a wide range of chemical and biological systems, and a knowledge of its rheological response has important implications in materials science and biotechnological applications. The simulations reported here are performed using a kinetic lattice–Boltzmann method. Lyotropic liquid crystals exhibit characteristic rheological responses in experiments that include shear-banding and a non-Newtonian flow curve as well as viscoelasticity under oscillatory shear. Their behaviour under steady and oscillatory shear is correctly reproduced in our simulations. On cessation of shear, as the morphology returns to the diamond phase, the relaxation of the stress response follows a stretched-exponential form for low initial strain rates.

Pressure effects revealed by small angle neutron scattering on block copolymer gels

We study the effects of hydrostatic pressure (P) on aqueous solutions and gels of the block copolymer B(20)E(610) (E, oxyethylene; B, oxybutylene; subscripts, number of repeats), by performing simultaneous small angle neutron scattering/pressure experiments. Micellar cubic gels were studied for 9.5 and 4.5 wt % B(20)E(610) at T = 20-80 and 35-55 degrees C, respectively, while micellar isotropic solutions where studied for 4.5 wt % B(20)E(610) at T > 55 degrees C. We observed that the interplanar distance d 110 (cubic unit cell parameter a = [see text for formula]) decreases while the correlation length of the cubic order (delta) increases, upon increasing P at a fixed T for 9.5 wt % B(20)E(610). The construction of master curves for d(110) and delta corresponding to 9.5 wt % B(20)E(610) proved the correlation between changes in T and P. Neither d(110) and delta nor the cubic-isotropic phase transition temperature was affected by the applied pressure for 4.5 wt % B(20)E(610). The dramatic contrast between the pressure-induced behavior observed for 9.5 and 4.5 wt % B(20)E(610) suggests that pressure induced effects might be more effectively transmitted through samples that present wider domains of cubic structure order (9.5 wt % compared to 4.5 wt % B(20)E(610)).

New directions in liquid crystal science

While we are all familiar with liquid crystal displays, an industry currently worth more than US dollars 60 billion yr(-1) and growing rapidly, fewer people are aware of the breadth of the subject of liquid crystals--one that represents the study of the fourth state of matter. Liquid crystals are found as essential elements in biological systems, soaps and detergents, sensor technologies and in the manipulation of electromagnetic radiation of various wavelengths. This meeting was designed to highlight both the truly multidisciplinary nature of liquid crystal science and to feature those areas away from electro-optic displays; these issues are developed and summarized in more detail.