Description: We present the design of a custom temperature-controlled chamber suitable for water or oilimmersion fluorescence microscopy and its application to phase behavior in lipid bilayer vesicles.The apparatus is self-contained and portable, suitable for multiuser microscopy facilities. It offers ahigher temperature resolution and stability than any comparable commercial apparatus, on the orderof millidegrees. We demonstrate the utility of the system in the study of miscibility transitions inmodel membranes. The temperature-dependent phase behavior of model membrane systems thatdisplay liquid-ordered Lophase coexistence with the liquid-disordered Ldphase is relevant tounderstanding the existence of heterogeneities in biological cell plasma membranes, ubiquitouslytermed “lipid rafts.” 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3483263
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