Related papers: Phase behavior of two-component lipid membranes: t…
The phase behavior is investigated for systems composed of a large number of macromolecular components N, with N greater or equal to 2. Liquid-liquid phase separation is modelled using a virial expansion up to the second order of the…
We present a general and systematic theory of non-equilibrium dynamics of multi-component fluid membranes, in general, and membranes containing transmembrane proteins, in particular. Developed based on a minimal number of principles of…
Motivated by the experimental study of Tayebi et al. [Nature Mater. 11, 1074 (2012)] on phase separation of stacked multi-component lipid bilayers, we propose a model composed of stacked two-dimensional Ising spins. We study both its static…
Lipid membranes, the barrier defining living cells and many of their sub-compartments, bind to a wide variety of nano- and micro-meter sized objects. In the presence of strong adhesive forces, membranes can strongly deform and wrap the…
Cholesterol (CHOL) drives lipid segregation and is thus a key player for the formation of lipid rafts and followingly for the ability of a cell to, e.g., enable selective agglomeration of proteins. The lipid segregation is driven by…
In this paper we suggest a theoretical method based on the statistical mechanics for treating the alpha-helix-random coil transition in alanine polypeptides. We consider this process as a first-order phase transition and develop a theory…
Amphiphiles are molecules which have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts. In water- and/or oil-like solvent, they self-assemble into extended sheet-like structures due to the hydrophobic effect. The free energy of an amphiphilic system…
This article summarizes a variety of physical mechanisms proposed in the literature, which can generate micro- and nanodomains in multicomponent lipid bilayers and biomembranes. It mainly focusses on lipid-driven mechanisms that do not…
Changes of external parameters in proximity of critical point can increase thermal fluctuations of tubular lipid membrane (TLM) and result in variation of the membrane shape. The phase transitions in the system are shown to be controlled by…
From the perspective of physical properties, the cell membrane is an exotic two-dimensional material that has a dual nature: it exhibits characteristics of fluids, i.e., lipid molecules show lateral diffusion, while also demonstrating…
We studied the adsorption of a charged protein onto an oppositely charged membrane, composed of mobile phospholipids of differing valence, using a statistical-thermodynamical approach. A two-block model was employed, one block corresponding…
Because of the isotropic and disordered nature of liquids, the anisotropy hidden in intermolecular interactions are often neglected. Accordingly, the order parameter describing a simple liquid has so far been believed to be only density. In…
Mixtures of several macromolecular species can lead to the formation of higher-order structures that often display non-ideal mixing behavior. In this work, we propose a minimal model of a quaternary system which considers the formation of a…
A phenomenological model for the unbinding transition of multi-component fluid membranes is proposed, where the unbinding transition is described using a theory analogous to Flory-Huggins theory for polymers. The coupling between the…
We study the shape and texture of finite domains comprising chiral/achiral molecules carrying a tilt field embedded in a 2-dimensional surface. Using a combination of simulations and {\it exact} variational calculations, we determine the…
Common models for two-phase lipid bilayer membranes are based on an energy that consists of an elastic term for each lipid phase and a line energy at interfaces. Although such an energy controls only the length of interfaces, the membrane…
Liquid-liquid phase separation has recently emerged as an important topic in the context of cellular organization. Within this context, there are multiple poorly understood features; for instance hints of critical behavior in the plasma…
Biological cells can actively tune their intracellular architecture according to their overall shape. Here we explore the rheological implication of such coupling in a minimal model of a dense cellular material where each cell exerts an…
Using an interface displacement model derived from a microscopic density functional theory we investigate thin liquidlike wetting layers adsorbed on flat substrates with an embedded chemical heterogeneity forming a stripe. For a wide range…
Lipid phase heterogeneity in the plasma membrane is thought to be crucial for many aspects of cell signaling, but the physical basis of participating membrane domains such as "lipid rafts" remains controversial. Here we consider a lattice…