Early Functional Deficit and Microglial Disturbances in a Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

11 p.

Papel de la N-nervonil esfingomielina en la organización lateral y la estabilidad nanomecánica de bicapas lipídicas

Los lípidos de las membranas biológicas no son perfectamente miscibles entre sí, con frecuencia dan origen a “dominios” bidimensionales separados lateralmente cuando se resuspenden en agua. Las mezclas esfingomielina/dioleilfosfatidilcolina/colesterol dan origen con frecuencia a dominios, pero esto no ocurre cuando la esfingomielina es insaturada (p. ej. N-nervonil esfingomielina). En este trabajo se han aplicado técnicas calorimétricas y estructurales para estudiar el comportamiento de mezclas N-nervonil esfingomielina/dioleilfosfatidilcolina/colesterol/ceramida. En presencia de ceramida y de N-nervonil esfingomielina se observa formación de dominios laterales, al contrario de lo que ocurría en ausencia de ceramida.

Metallic thin fi lms on stepped surfaces: lateral scattering of quantum well states

Quantum well states of Ag films grown on stepped Au(111) surfaces are shown to undergo lateral scattering, in analogy with surface states of vicinal Ag(111). Applying angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy we observe quantum well bands with zone-folding and gap openings driven by surface/interface step lattice scattering. Experiments performed on a curved Au(111) substrate allow us to determine a subtle terrace-size effect, i.e., a fine step-density-dependent upward shift of quantum well bands. This energy shift is explained as mainly due to the periodically stepped crystal potential offset at the interface side of the film. Finally, the surface state of the stepped Ag film is analyzed with both photoemission and scanning tunneling microscopy. We observe that the stepped film interface also affects the surface state energy, which exhibits a larger terrace-size effect compared to surface states of bulk vicinal Ag(111) crystals

Physico-chemical interactions between compartment-forming lipids and other prebiotically relevant biomolecules

Lipids are essential constituents of contemporary living cells, serving as structural molecules that are necessary to form membranous compartments. Amphiphilic lipid-like molecules may also have contributed to prebiotic chemical evolution by promoting the synthesis, aggregation and cooperative encapsulation of other biomolecules. The resulting compartments would allow systems of molecules to be maintained that represent microscopic experiments in a natural version of combinatorial chemistry. Here we address these possibilities and describe recent results related to interactions between amphiphiles and other biomolecules during early evolution toward the first living cells.

Double proximity effect in lateral S-NF-S junctions

We investigate planar Josephson junctions where the intermediate spacer between the two superconductors is an hybrid structure made by a normal metal and a ferromagnet. The different behaviors of the S-N-S junctions with thicknesses of 50 nm in both Cu and Nb layers, and S-N/F-S junctions with 10 nm of Co, 50 nm of Cu and 50 nm of Nb are studied. In this way, we analyze the influence of the ferromagnetic exchange interaction on the proximity effect. A dramatic supression of the josephson critical current of the Nb-(Cu/Co)-Nb junctions is observed. We believe that the reason for this is due to the length scale of the superconducting correlations of the electrons and holes of the weak link is larger than the thickness of Cu/Co bilayer.