Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science
Chancellor’s Fellow
Joe and Essie Smith Endowed Chair (2001-2006)

3108 Bainer Hall
http://www.chms.ucdavis.edu/research/web/longo/
mllongo@ucdavis.edu
(530) 754-6348 office

Education

B.A. in Biochemistry-Molecular Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1988
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993

Research Interests

In our laboratory, we study mechanical, barrier, transport, adsorptive, and adhesive properties of artificial and real cell membranes that lead to macroscopic behaviors of biological membranes. Examples of these behaviors include viral infection, fertilization, action of anesthetics, membrane transport, and drug delivery. The softness of biological interfaces present special experimental problems associated with the fact that the core membrane component, the lipid bilayer, is fluid under physiological conditions. Therefore, we use mild micromanipulation techniques in which the pressure on the membrane can be varied by as little as one millionth of an atmosphere for measuring membrane mechanical properties and adsorption of water soluble species. We softly image the surface of the lipid bilayer using atomic force microscopy and fluorescence microscopy to examine phenomena at a range of length scales from nanometers to micrometers. For properties that can not be observed experimentally, we develop computer simulations               

Awards & Honors

• Graduated with Honors and Distinction in Biochemistry-Molecular Biology, 1988
• University of California President's Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 1987
• Patricia Robert Harris Fellowship, 1988-1991
• University of California President's Dissertation Year Fellowship, 1992-1993
• National Institutes of Health NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1994-1996
• NSF Career Award, 1998-2002
• Joe and Essie Smith Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering, U C Davis, 2001-2006
• Chancellor's Fellow, 2003-2008