Environmentally sensitive (ES) dyes have been used for many decades to study the lipid order of cell membranes, as different lipid phases play a crucial role in a wide variety of cell processes. Yet, the understanding of how ES dyes behave, interact, and affect membranes at the atomistic scale is lacking, partially due to the lack of molecular dynamics (MD) models of these dyes. Here, we present ground-and excited-state MD models of commonly used ES dyes, Laurdan and di-4-ANEPPDHQ, and use MD simulations to study the behavior of these dyes in a disordered and an ordered membrane. We also investigate the effect that these two dyes have on the hydration and lipid order of the membranes, where we see a significant effect on the hydration of lipids proximal to the dyes. These findings are combined with experimental fluorescence experiments of ordered and disordered vesicles and live HeLa cells stained by the aforementioned dyes, where the generalized polarization (GP) values were measured at different concentrations of the dyes. We observe a small but significant decrease of GP at higher Laurdan concentrations in vesicles, while the same effect is not observed in cell membranes. The opposite effect is observed with di-4-ANEPPDHQ where no significant change in GP is seen for vesicles but a very substantial and significant decrease is seen in cell membranes. Together, our results show the profound effect that ES dyes have on membranes, and the presented MD models will be important for further understanding of these effects.

Environmentally-sensitive membrane dyes have been extensively used to study the different liquid phases, (liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered (Ld)) of the heterogenous cellular membrane. However, it is not yet well understood how these dyes affect membrane properties upon and post insertion. Using a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and fluorescence microscopy, we study the effect of PRODAN insertion upon its local environment. We firstly present the results of the MD simulations of PRODAN interacting with lipid bilayers of various compositions, specifically the resultant hydration and lipid order of the system. Experimentally, the lipid order of Lo and Ld vesicles containing various concentrations of PRODAN are inferred from their Generalised Polarisation (GP) values, calculated using their fluorescence spectra. We then apply the methodology to a more complex biological system, the HeLa cell line. For both systems, the presence of PRODAN influences its local environment differently between the Lo and Ld phases. In the simulated systems, the presence of PRODAN lowers the lipid order in the Ld phase and increases the order in the Lo phase, whilst experimental data demonstrates that even a small increase in PRODAN concentration significantly lowers the order of both phases. We suggest this discrepancy may be ascribed to the differing localisations of the dye molecules within the bilayer, and their effect on the hydration of adjacent lipids.

Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment during Long Shutdown II of the LHC in 2018. The GEM foil is a basic part of the detector which consists of a composite material, i.e. polyimide coated with copper and perforated with a high density of micro holes. In this paper the results of the GEM foil material characterization are reported, and a campaign of tensile and holes deformation tests is performed. During the tests, the complex radiation environment at CMS is taken into account and samples are prepared accordingly to see the impacts of the radiation on the GEM foil, i.e. non-irradiated samples are used as the reference and compared with neutrons-and gamma-irradiated. These studies provide the information necessary to optimize the stress level without damaging the foil and holes during the detector assembly in which the GEM foils stack is stretched simultaneously to maintain the uniform gap among the foils in order to get the designed performance of the detector. Finally, an estimate of the Young's modulus of the GEM foil is provided by using the tensile test data. K: Gaseous detectors; Materials for gaseous detectors; Radiation damage to detector materials (gas detectors); Electron multipliers (gas)