Related papers: Can amphiphile architecture directly control vesic…
Curvature in biological membranes can be generated by a variety of different molecular mechanisms such as protein scaffolding, lipid or protein asymmetry, cytoskeletal forces, etc. These mechanisms have the net effect of generating stresses…
We present a mechanism and show two variants of a method where the average diameter of spontaneously (barrier-free) assembled single component unilamellar liposomes is intrinsic, in agreement with Helfrich's theory. It depends only on the…
We have linked the structural and dynamic properties in aqueous solution of amphiphilic charged diblock copolymers poly(butyl acrylate)-b-poly(acrylic acid), PBA-b-PAA, synthesized by controlled radical polymerization, with the…
We simulate a phase-separating a bilayer in which the leaflets experience a direct coupling favouring local compositional symmetry ("registered" bilayer phases), and an indirect coupling due to hydrophobic mismatch that favours strong local…
We propose a very simple but realistic enough model which allows to include a large number of molecules in molecular dynamics MD simulations of these bilayers, but nevertheless taking into account molecular charge distributions, flexible…
Biomolecular condensates are complex droplets comprising diverse molecules that interact using various mechanisms. Condensation is often driven by short-ranged attraction, but net charges can also mediate long-ranged repulsion. Using…
The growth, form, and division of prebiotic vesicles, membraneous bags of fluid of varying components and shapes is hypothesized to have served as the substrate for the origin of life. The dynamics of these out-of-equilibrium structures is…
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…
We propose a model that accounts for budding behavior of domains in lipid bilayers, where each of the bilayer leaflets has a coupling between its local curvature and local lipid composition. The compositional asymmetry between the two…
The general Helfrich shape equation determined by minimizing the curvature free energy describes the equilibrium shapes of the axisymmetric lipid bilayer vesicles in different conditions. It is a non-linear differential equation with…
We study the interaction of lipid bilayers with short chain alcohols using molecular dynamics on different length scales. We use detailed atomistic modeling and modeling on the length scale where an alcohol is just an amphiphilic dimer. Our…
One of the challenges of self-assembling finite-sized colloidal aggregates with a sought morphology is the necessity of precisely sorting the position of the colloids at the microscopic scale to avoid the formation of off-target structures.…
Living cells are characterized by the micrometric confinement of various macromolecules at high concentrations. Using droplets containing binary polymer blends as artificial cells, we previously showed that cell-sized confinement causes…
Recent experiments have imposed controlled swelling patterns on thin polymer films, which subsequently buckle into three-dimensional shapes. We develop a solution to the design problem suggested by such systems, namely, if and how one can…
Formation and rupture of vesicles is a fundamental process underlying diverse phenomena in biology, materials science, and biomedical applications. Vesicles form when the area of a growing disk-like membrane exceeds a critical value at…
Recent developments in lipid membrane models for simulations are reviewed. To reduce computational costs, various coarse-grained molecular models have been proposed. Among them, implicit solvent (solvent-free) molecular models are…
Controlling the size and shape of assembled structures is a fundamental challenge in self-assembly, and is highly relevant in material design and biology. Here, we show that specific, but promiscuous, short-range binding interactions make…
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…
Shells, when confined, can deform in a broad assortment of shapes and patterns, often quite dissimilar to what is produced by their flat counterparts (plates). In this work we discuss the morphological landscape of shells deposited on a…
An analytical theory is developed to describe the dynamics of a closed lipid bilayer membrane (vesicle) freely suspended in a general linear flow. Considering a nearly spherical shape, the solution to the creeping-flow equations is obtained…