Emma O'Leary

Inquiry into Giant Unilamellar Vesicle (GUV) Formation

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is a pathway that many cells use to uptake nutrients, hormones, proteins, and other cargo. However, this pathway is also involved in virus invasion, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer’s, and other neurological diseases. The importance of creating a control system to properly study this pathway should not be underestimated. This summer, I optimized a protocol to produce giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) at Harvard Medical School in the Kirchhausen lab. These liposomes acted as a control specifically for experiments using supported lipid bilayers (SLBs); but due to the success of my easy-to-repeat, high yield procedure for GUV formation, the protocol is now being used for other experiments in the lab, including virology.