Amphipathic Molecules in Biology

‘Amphipathic’ molecules have one part which is water-loving (hydrophilic) and another part that is water-hating (hydrophobic). This allows them to partition interestingly between the aqueous phase (e.g. the cell cytoplasm or the extra-cellular medium), and the non-aqueous phase (e.g. the cell membrane).  Large amphipathic molecules, e.g. some disease-causing proteins, completely change their conformation when they move from one phase to the other, which is at the core of understanding the basis of many human diseases. There are also many smaller but important amphipathic molecules, such as some signaling molecules, whose interaction with the non-aqueous phase has so far been ignored. However,  it is now becoming apparent that this can have potential biological significance. I will talk about some interesting new findings about both these classes of molecules.

1) Dey et al., Chem. Eur. J., (2021), https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202100328; 

2) Dey et al., Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (2020) 22 (26), 14613-14620