Sponsor: James Letts, Ph.D. Molecular & Cellular Bio The final stage of cellular respiration in Eukaryotes occurs in the inner mitochondrial membrane and involves the transfer of electrons through a series of four membrane protein complexes, known as complexes, I- IV. The energy from the electron transfer reactions is used to pump-protons across the membrane, creating a proton motive force that is used to generate ATP via complex V. Typically the respiratory complexes are studied in isolation after their removal from the membrane, which could alter their structure and give a less accurate representation of the true electron transport chain process. Thus, my objective was to make inverted membrane vesicles from native bacterial membranes, known as sub-bacterial particles (SBPs), to measure the activity of the respiratory complexes in their native membranes. The model organism used was Paracoccus denitrificans, an α- protobacterium a close relative to the protomitochondria, making it a good candite to serve as a mitochondrial model. To characterize their activity and determine the success of vesicle formation I measured oxygen consumption by the SBPs under various conditions. Respirometry results suggest the protocol was successful, but the complexes were poorly coupled to ATP synthesis by complex V. Further optimization is needed to form well coupled particles with protocol. Characterizing C-peptide and Serum Albumin Protein Aggregation Using Single-Molecule, Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy

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