Vesicle size optimization using a genetic algorithm

The first application of evolutionary optimization in PACE was aimed at optimizing vesicle size distribution [1].  Variation in vesicle size distribution, dependent on experimental parameters is shown below:


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In this experiment, the experimental space was composed of concentration values of different types of amphiphiles, and concentrations of other chemical constituents such as salts and pH buffers.  The response was a spectrophotometric measurement of turbidity, which increases with vesicle size.  The sequence of measured response for each generation is illustrated in the figure below:


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The improvement is evident by comparing the final generation to the initial generation, noting that the mass of the final distribution that exceeds the response values of the first generation is substantial.


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The details of the experiment and the genetic algorithm may be found in reference [1].