Lipid vesicle interactions with plasma polymers

The cell membrane surrounds each cell in our body and controls how cells communicate to form different tissues. Our understanding of this outer shell is limited due to the complexity of the membrane structure. In this thesis artificial cell membrane models were constructed on thin film coatings known as plasma polymers. These coatings provide more flexibility in the types of tools we can use to study membranes. Critically, this study showed that micro- and nanoscale patterning of the plasma polymers enabled spatial control of membrane structures, an important step in recreating more realistic artificial cell membrane models.