Achievement

Janice Lin’s research involves knowledge of material properties in order to obtain information out of a biological system. Her project is as much materials science engineering as it is biology. In the past three years, she has not only identified the exact doping of silicon necessary to resolve electrical information about the biomimetic cell membrane, but also succeeded in synthesizing and purifying three membrane proteins to characterize in this system. The composition of the biomimetic cell membrane has also be optimized in terms of lipid composition, construction, and electrical properties to make it a versatile, valuable, and physiologically relevant tool for studying membrane proteins and membrane active peptides. These achievements have been outlined in three papers in peer-reviewed journals. One entitled: "Impedance spectroscopy of bilayer membranes on single crystal silicon," Biointerphases 3, FA33-40 (2008). [DOI: 10.1116/1.2896117]