Related papers: Phase-separation transitions in asymmetric lipid b…
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…
Bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) are an essential component of many biological systems, forming a functional barrier between the cell and the surrounding environment. When the membrane relaxes from a structural perturbation, the dynamics of…
We derived free energy functional of a bilayer lipid membrane from the first principles of elasticity theory. The model explicitly includes position-dependent mutual slide of monolayers and bending deformation. Our free energy functional of…
(200 words) Oxidation of unsaturated lipids is a fundamental process involved in cell bioenergetics as well as in cell death. Using giant unilamellar vesicles and a chlorin photosensitizer, we asymmetrically oxidized the outer or inner…
The phase structure of self-avoiding polymerized membranes is studied by extensive Hybrid Monte Carlo simulations. Several folding transitions from the flat to a collapsed state are found. Using a suitable order parameter and finite size…
We study a model of a lipid bilayer membrane described by two order parameters: the chemical composition described using the Gaussian model and the spatial configuration described with the elastic deformation model of a membrane with a…
Ever since the raft model for biomembranes has been proposed, the traditional view of biomembranes based on the fluid-mosaic model has been altered. In the raft model, dynamical heterogeneities in multi-component lipid bilayers play an…
Experimental and modeling/simulation studies of phase equilibrium and growth morphologies of novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) mixtures of PS (polystyrene) and liquid crystals that exhibit a direct isotropic/smectic-A (lamellar)…
Lipid domains are found in systems such as multi-component bilayer membranes and single component monolayers at the air-water interface. It was shown by Andelman et al. (Comptes Rendus 301, 675 (1985)) and McConnell et al. (Phys. Chem. {\bf…
A biomimetic model of cell-cell communication was developed to probe the passive molecular transport across ion channels inserted in synthetic lipid bilayers formed between contacting droplets arranged in a linear array. Diffusion of a…
We report on a statistical approach to mode-locking transitions of nano-structured laser cavities characterized by an enhanced density of states. We show that the equations for the interacting modes can be mapped onto a statistical model…
We study the phase behaviour of cholesteric liquid crystal shells with different geometries. We compare the cases of tangential and no anchoring at the surface, focussing on the former case, which leads to a competition between the…
Inverse bicontinuous cubic phases are ubiquitous in lipid-water mixtures and consist of a lipid bilayer forming a cubic minimal surface, thereby dividing space into two cubic networks of water channels. For small hydrocarbon chain lengths,…
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…
This work investigates phase separation of a monodisperse gas of inelastically colliding hard disks confined in a two-dimensional annulus, the inner circle of which represents a "thermal wall". When described by granular hydrodynamic…
The electrostatic contribution to spontaneous membrane curvature is calculated within Poisson-Boltzmann theory under a variety of assumptions and emphasizing parameters in the physiological range. Asymmetric surface charges, either fixed…
The organization of lipids in biological membranes is essential for cellular functions such as signal transduction and membrane trafficking. A major challenge is how to control lateral lipid composition in supported membranes which are…
We present a field theory to describe the composition of a surface spontaneously exchanging matter with its bulk environment. By only assuming matter conservation in the system, we show with extensive numerical simulations that, depending…
A recent study has demonstrated that phase separation in binary liquid mixtures is arrested in the presence of elastic networks and can lead to a nearly uniformly-sized distribution of the dilute-phase droplets. At longer timescales, these…
Many recent studies of liquid-liquid phase separation in biology focus on phase separation as a dynamic control mechanism for cellular function, but it can also result in complex mesoscopic structures. We primarily investigate a model…