Related papers: Structure and organization in inclusion-containing…
For many biotechnological applications it would be useful to better understand the effects produced by electric fields on lipid membranes. This review discusses several aspects of the electrostatic properties of a planar lipid membrane with…
We introduce a simulation strategy to consistently couple continuum biomembrane dynamics to the motion of discrete biological macromolecules residing within or on the membrane. The methodology is used to study the diffusion of integral…
Structure of polymer electrolytes membranes, e.g., Nafion, inside fuel cell catalyst layers has significant impact on the electrochemical activity and transport phenomena that determine cell performance. In those regions, Nafion can be…
A physical scenario accounting for the existence of size-limited submicrometric domains in cell membranes is proposed. It is based on the numerical investigation of the counterpart, in lipidic membranes where proteins are diffusing, of the…
Cells in tissues can organize into a broad spectrum of structures according to their function. Drastic changes of organization, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transitions or the formation of spheroidal aggregates, are often associated…
The spatial organization of cell membrane glycoproteins and glycolipids is critical for mediating the binding of ligands, receptors, and macromolecules on the plasma membrane. However, we currently do not have the methods to quantify the…
Lipid bilayer membranes have a native (albeit small) permeability for water molecules. Under an external load, provided that the bilayer structure stays intact and does not suffer from poration or rupture, a lipid membrane deforms and its…
Simulation of a multicomponent lipid bilayer having a fixed percentage of cholesterol is done to study phase transition leading to domain formation. The concept of random lattice has been used in simulation to account for the coupling…
It is well known that lipid membranes respond to a threshold transmembrane electric field through a reversible mechanism called electroporation, where hydrophilic water pores form across the membrane, an effect widely used in biological…
Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are known to play an important role in the communication between distant cells and to deliver biological information throughout the body. To date, many studies have focused on the role of sEVs…
We investigate how an externally imposed curvature influences lipid segregation on two-phase-coexistent membranes. We show that the bending-modulus contrast of the two phases and the curvature act together to yield a reduced effective line…
The assembly of proteins in membranes plays a key role in many crucial cellular pathways. Despite their importance, characterizing transmembrane assembly remains challenging for experiments and simulations. Equilibrium molecular dynamics…
Mechanoelectrical transduction in the inner ear is a biophysical process underlying the senses of hearing and balance. The key players involved in this process are mechanosensitive ion channels. They are located in the stereocilia of hair…
We propose and investigate a model for lipid raft formation and dynamics in biological membranes. The model describes the lipid composition of the membrane and an interaction with cholesterol. To account for cholesterol exchange between…
We discuss the hydrodynamic collective effects due to active protein molecules that are immersed in lipid bilayer membranes and modeled as stochastic force dipoles. We specifically take into account the presence of the bulk solvent which…
Lipid vesicles consist of aqueous cores surrounded by a bilayer of phospholipids. Hybrid polymer-lipid vesicles incorporate both polymers and lipids, offering promising properties for developing pharmaceuticals, biosensors, and artificial…
Multicomponent lipid mixtures exhibit complex phase behavior, including coexistence of nanoscopic fluid phases in ternary mixtures mimicking the composition of the outer leaflet of mammalian plasma membrane. The physical mechanisms…
The bending rigidity $k_c$ of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane…
To understand mechanism of cell-membrane compartmentalization, we studied coarse-grained model systems consisting of lipid and cholesterol molecules. Cholesterol plays crucial role in lateral phase segregation in the bilayered lipid…
Transient electric fields across cell bilayer membranes can lead to electroporation, as well as to cell fusion, and have been extensively studied. We find that transmembrane electric fields similar to those in cells can lead to a massive,…