| Ladderanes, cyclobutane containing lipids, and multi-branched long-chain lipids are in nature involved in impermeable membranes in various organisms. There unusual phase behavior and packing in the bilayer membranes has been recognized but never been studied in great detail due to their limited availability. Recently synthetic routes to some of these multi-methyl branched long-chain lipids and ladderanes has been elaborated. This opens the possibility for extensive phase behavior and aggregation behavior studies. Systematic variations in the chains of these lipids will be made in order to get inside in the structure function relation of these lipids. Once the aggregation and phase behavior are mapped the interaction between these new classes of lipids and biological membranes can be studied in great detail. Especially the packing of these lipids in biological membranes which makes these membranes impermeable is of great interest. This impermeability can be used in vesicles for drug-delivery or for separation of compounds that otherwise react. Fusion phenomena in artificial membranes comprising these compounds is another intriguing aspect. On the other hand these vesicles can be used to study the interaction with peptides designed as potential drugs against tuberculosis bacteria, which impermeable envelop is made of these multi-branched long-chain lipids. Access to these unusual lipid components and fundamental insight in their aggregation behavior opens entirely new perspectives in bilayer and membrane sciences. |
