MEMPHYS is an interdisciplinary research center funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.
The Center is concerned with parallel experimental and theoretical research within the broad fields of physics and physical chemistry of soft interfaces and biological membranes. The focus is on developing molecular descriptions of the physical and physico-chemical properties of membrane systems and investigating how these properties control membrane function. The area of research covers lipid monolayers, bilayers, and biological membranes as well as interactions of these systems with enzymes, polynucleotides, proteins, channels, peptides, drugs, antibiotics, alcohols, sterols, as well as other compounds that are active in membranes.
The Center exploits a multitude of theoretical and experimental methods and techniques, including molecular modeling and computer simulation techniques, thermodynamic measurements (calorimetry, densitometry), monolayer techniques, fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy (including multi-photon excitation and coupling to micropipette aspiration/manipulation), single-particle tracking, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, neutron reflectometry, X-ray and neutron diffraction, micromechanics and micro-manipulation (vesicle fluctuation analysis and micropipette aspiration/manipulation), as well as ultra-sensitive surface-probe techniques and single-molecule detection methods such as atomic force microscopy and bioprobe force spectroscopy.
The Center is strongly engaged in national and international collaborations and is furthermore committed to strengthening the training of young researchers in molecular biophysics and biophysical chemistry within an active research environment at a high and competitive international level. Results of the research are applied within the pharmaceutical and biomedical area as well as within nano-science and nano-biotechnology where the traditional borders between physics, chemistry, and biology tend to vanish.
MEMPHYS website