Related papers: Ion-channel-like behavior in lipid bilayer membran…
A minimalist simulation model for lipid bilayers is presented. Each lipid is represented by a flexible chain of beads in implicit solvent. The hydrophobic effect is mimicked through an intermolecular pair potential localized at the…
Active fluids are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium systems due to the internal energy injection of the active constituents. We show here that a transition from a motion-less isotropic state towards a flowing polar one can be possibly driven…
We study the indentation of a free-standing lipid membrane suspended over a nanopore on a hydrophobic substrate by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We find that in the course of indentation, the membrane bends at the point of…
The soliton wave model of action potentials, and the proposal of induced lipid pores, are potentially paradigm shifting ideas which challenge accepted views of the Hodgkin-Huxley model and of protein-based ion channels. These two proposals…
The movement of ionic solutions is an essential part of biology and technology. Fluidics, from nano- to micro- to microfluidics, is a burgeoning area of technology which is all about the movement of ionic solutions, on various scales. Many…
Ions transiting biomembranes might pass readily from water through ion-specific membrane proteins if those protein channels provide environments similar to the aqueous solution hydration environment. Indeed, bulk aqueous solution is an…
The opening rate of voltage-gated potassium ion channels exhibits a characteristic, knee-like turnover where the common exponential voltage-dependence changes suddenly into a linear one. An explanation of this puzzling crossover is put…
Protein mechanosensitive channels (MS) are activated by tension transmitted through the lipid bilayer. We propose a theory of lateral stress relaxation in a bilayer lipid membrane exposed to external pressure pulse in the patch-clamp…
A model of mobile, charged ion channels embedded in a biomembrane is investigated. The ion channels fluctuate between an opened and a closed state according to a simple two-state reaction scheme whereas the total number of ion channels is a…
Viscosity is a key property of cell membranes that controls mobility of embedded proteins and membrane remodeling. Measuring it is challenging because existing approaches involve complex experimental designs and/or models, and the…
A three-dimensional model of a single-layer lithium-ion pouch cell is presented which couples conventional porous electrode theory describing cell electrochemical behaviour with an energy balance describing cell thermal behaviour.…
Ion channels are proteins with a hole down the middle embedded in cell membranes. Membranes form insulating structures and the channels through them allow and control the movement of charged particles, spherical ions, mostly Na+, K+, Ca++,…
We present a comparative computer simulation study of the phase diagrams and anomalous behavior of two-dimensional ($2D$) and quasi-two-dimensional ($q2D$) classical particles interacting with each other through isotropic core-softened…
We investigate with computer simulations the critical radius of pores in a lipid bilayer membrane. Ilton et al. (2016) recently showed that nucleated pores in a homopolymer film can increase or decrease in size, depending on whether they…
We discuss the problem of proton motion in Hydrogen bond materials with special focus on ice. We show that phenomenological models proposed in the past for the study of ice can be recast in terms of microscopic models in close relationship…
We study theoretically the effects of confinement on active polar gels such as the actin network of eukaryotic cells. Using generalized hydrodynamics equations derived for active gels, we predict, in the case of quasi one-dimensional…
Plasma membranes appear as deformable systems wherein molecules are free to move and diffuse giving rise to condensed microdomains (composed of ordered lipids, transmembrane proteins and cholesterol) surrounded by disordered lipid…
A hydrophobic constriction site can act as an efficient barrier to ion and water permeation if its diameter is less than the diameter of an ion's first hydration shell. This hydrophobic gating mechanism is thought to operate in a number of…
We give an explicit formula for the membrane potential of cells in terms of the intracellular and extracellular ionic concentrations, and derive equations for the ionic currents that flow through channels, exchangers and electrogenic pumps.…
During the melting transition of dimyristoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DMPG), the order of the lipid chains and the three-dimensional, vesicular structural arrangement change simultaneously. These changes result in peculiar heat capacity…