Morgan Gulley

Background

Morgan Gulley was born on November 15, 1994 to James Earl Gulley Jr. and Julie Marie (Kerr) Gulley. She is a student at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. She is Audra Sostarecz's research group. She created her own research project in the summer of 2014 before her sophomore year of college. She is still continuously working on this project. The research she has done has been presented at the National American Chemical Society (ACS) Conference in the spring of 2015. In the fall of 2015 she gave a research talk at her Regional ACS Conference in St. Ambrose.

Abstract

Langmuir-Blodgett Monolayers of collagen and phospholipids on titanium substrates are being used as a model system for the affinity of osteoblasts to titanium rods. The Langmuir Monolayer technique allows for the analysis of the organization of amphiphilic molecules at an air-water interface and is, therefore, a useful technique for the formation of model cell membranes. Collagen, Type I from calf skin, was used as a substitute for human bone and titanium nitride foil was used as the substrate due to its increased biocompatibility. Langmuir monolayers of collagen are found to have a higher degree of order (less fluidity) and to be more stable indicated by a higher surface pressure at low molecular areas when incorporated into a film with phospholipids such as dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE). Similarly, transfer ratio data of collagen monolayers to silicon (SiO2) substrates increased in the presence of DPPC or DPPE indicating that this may be a good model system for this investigation. In preparation for current experiments involving Atomic Force Microscopy analysis of collagen/phospholipid monolayers transferred to titanium nitride foil using dipalmitolyphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG) as the lipid because of its impact on bacterial resistance in the bone cell model membrane, we have determined that we can use the ezAFM for analysis of transferred multilayers of arachidic acid.[File:Silicon-Feb22-3D.png]