Emma Mayoux-Andrews
Hills Road Sixth Form College

Bending Membranes
(First image.) A double layer of corks represent a lipid bilayer (membrane). Insertions (amphipathic helices) and agents able to modify the lipid packing (BAR domains) cause the membrane to bend.

Making a clathrin-coated vesicle
(Second image.) "A rich clathrin coating" surrounding a lipid bilayer- the essence of a fine vesicle. In this picture a membrane is represented as a double layer of books packed end-on-end, showing that membranes can contain vast amounts of information. The open book is marked with an amphipathic helix inserted into the 'membrane' (book) that stabilizes the opening. The master chef reads from this book how to make a clathrin-coated vesicle- "Vesicle a la clathrin coat".

Fitting proteins together into a vesicle
(Third image.) Proteins of all sorts of shapes and sizes have to fit together into a vesicle, which appeared to the artist rather like a 360degree game of tetris.
The picture promotes the idea that proteins are designed to be in different environments or in different curvatures or may even have a preference for a protein of a complementary shape.

The Thinker: who am I?
(Fourth image.) A monkey considers what makes him who he is...