Sáenz Group
Our laboratory is focused on understanding the design principles of living membranes. In particular we want to understand how lipids contribute to membrane function and organismal fitness from synthetic protocells to microorganisms.
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Bottom-up Synthetic Biology
Cells are complex interconnected systems with many processes occurring in parallel. The complexity and robustness of the cell is crucially dependent on the ability to orchestrate localization of a staggering number of simultaneously occurring biochemical processes. Lipid membranes play a central role in this partitioning of bioactivity. Membranes serve a dual role as a selectively permeable compartment, and as a two-dimensional scaffold coordinating biochemical activity (e.g. signaling, transport, growth and division). The ability of membranes to perform these crucial roles rests on the collective interactions of lipids and proteins, and the physical and chemical membrane properties resulting from these interactions.
