Related papers: Equilibrium insertion of nanoscale objects into ph…
The Single Chain Mean Field theory is used to simulate the equilibrium structure of phospholipid membranes at the molecular level. Three levels of coarse-graining of DMPC phospholipid surfactants are present: the detailed 44-beads double…
Coarse-grained model for saturated (DCPC, DLPC, DMPC, DPPC, DSPC) and unsaturated (POPC, DOPC) phospholipids is introduced within the Single Chain Mean Field theory. A single set of parameters adjusted for DMPC bilayers gives an adequate…
Nanotube patterning may occur naturally upon the spontaneous self-assembly of biomolecules onto the surface of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). It results in periodically alternating bands of surface properties, ranging from…
Great efficiency to penetrate into living cells is attributed to carbon nanotubes due to a number of direct and indirect observations of carbon nanotubes inside the cells. However, a direct evidence of physical translocation of nanotubes…
We present a simple, and physically motivated, coarse-grained model of a lipid bilayer, suited for micron scale computer simulations. Each ~25 nm^2 patch of bilayer is represented by a spherical particle. Mimicking forces of hydrophobic…
Understanding how highly symmetric, robust, monodisperse protein cages self-assemble can have major applications in various areas of bio-nanotechnology, such as drug delivery, biomedical imaging and gene therapy. We develop a model to…
Gaining access to the cell interior is fundamental for many applications, such as electrical recording, drug and biomolecular delivery. A very promising technique consists of culturing cells on nano/micro pillars. The tight adhesion and…
Bilayer membranes self-assembled from amphiphilic molecules such as lipids, surfactants and block copolymers are ubiquitous in biological and physiochemical systems. The shape and structure of bilayer membranes depend crucially on their…
We examine the budding of a nanoscale particle through a lipid bilayer using molecular dynamics simulations, free energy calculations, and an elastic theory, with the aim of determining the extent to which equilibrium elasticity theory can…
The equilibrium distance between two lipid bilayers stable in bulk water and in proximity of a substrate was investigated. Samples consisted of a homogeneous lipid bilayer, floating near an identical bilayer deposited on the hydrophilic…
Cells offer numerous inspiring examples where proteins and membranes combine to form complex structures that are key to intracellular compartmentalization, cargo transport, and specialization of cell morphology. Despite this wealth of…
We describe a simple coarse-grained model which is suited to study lipid layers and their phase transitions. Lipids are modeled by short semiflexible chains of beads with a solvophilic head and a solvophobic tail component. They are forced…
In a recent computational study, we found highly structured ground states for coarse-grained polymers adsorbed to ultrathin nanowires in a certain model parameter region. Those tubelike configurations show, even at a first glance, exciting…
The elastic properties of a self-assembled bilayer membrane are studied using the self-consistent field theory, applied to a model system composed of flexible amphiphilic chains dissolved in hydrophilic polymeric solvents. Examining the…
According to the lipid raft hypothesis, biological lipid membranes are laterally heterogeneous and filled with nanoscale ordered "raft" domains, which are believed to play an important role for the organization of proteins in membranes.…
Membrane proteins and lipids can self-assemble into membrane protein polyhedral nanoparticles (MPPNs). MPPNs have a closed spherical surface and a polyhedral protein arrangement, and may offer a new route for structure determination of…
Over the past two decades polymer nanocomposites have received tremendous interest from industry and academia due to their advanced properties comparative to polymer blends. Many computational studies have revealed that the macroscopic…
A coarse-grained molecular model, which consists of a spherical particle and an orientation vector, is proposed to simulate lipid membrane on a large length scale. The solvent is implicitly represented by an effective attractive interaction…
This work presents a general and unified theory describing block copolymer self-assembly in the presence of free surfaces and nanoparticles in the context of Self-Consistent Filed Theory. Specifically, the derived theory applies to free and…
The structural and thermodynamic properties of mixtures of colloidal spheres and non-adsorbing polymer chains are studied within a novel general two-component macromolecular liquid state approach applicable for all size asymmetry ratios.…