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A recently described technique (Estes and Mayer, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1712 (2005) 152--160) for the preparation of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) in solutions with high ionic strength is examined. By observing a series of osmotic…
We theoretically investigate the thermally-driven curvature and lipid density fluctuations of a quasi-spherical vesicle, accounting for the dissipation due to monolayer viscosity and intermonolayer friction. The theory predicts that…
The collision dynamics of hard spheres and cylindrical pores is solved exactly, which is the minimal model for a regularly porous membrane. Nonequilibrium event-driven molecular dynamics simulations are used to show that the permeability…
Active colloidal systems have emerged as promising contenders for the future of microdevices. While conventional designs have extensively exploited the use of hard colloids, the advancement of cell-inspired architectures represents a…
Charge layering in the close vicinity of charged interfaces is a well known effect, extensively reported in both experiments and simulations of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTIL) and concentrated aqueous-like electrolytes. The…
We focus on polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNP). A PGNP is composed of two different layers: the hard core of a nanoparticle and the soft corona of grafted polymers on the surface. It is predicted that PGNPs with these two distinct layers…
Cell plasma membranes display a dramatically rich structural complexity characterized by functional sub-wavelength domains with specific lipid and protein composition. Under favorable experimental conditions, patterned morphologies can also…
We study the spontaneous charging and the crystallization of spherical micron-sized water-droplets dispersed in oil by numerically solving, within a Poisson-Boltzmann theory in the geometry of a spherical cell, for the density profiles of…
We introduce a novel model, comprising self-avoiding surfaces and incorporating edges and tubules, that is designed to characterize the structural morphologies and transitions observed within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). By employing…
The adsorption of mixtures of charged polymers onto solid surfaces presents a big interest in different technological and industrial fields, and in particular, in cosmetics. This requires to deepen on the most fundamental physico-chemical…
Unassisted ion transport through lipid membranes plays a crucial role in many cell functions without which life would not be possible, yet the precise mechanism behind the process remains unknown due to its molecular complexity. Here, we…
We describe the photochemical dissipative structuring of fatty acids from CO and CO2 saturated water under the solar UVC and UVA photon potential prevalent at Earth's surface during the Archean. Their association into vesicles and their…
Cells use homeostatic mechanisms to maintain an optimal composition of distinct types of phospholipids in cellular membranes. The hydrophilic dipolar layer at the membrane interface, composed of phospholipid headgroups, regulates the…
We report on atomistic simulations of DPPC lipid monolayers using the CHARMM36 lipid force field and four-point OPC water model. The entire two-phase region where domains of the `liquid-condensed' (LC) phase coexist with domains of the…
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…
Most organic and inorganic surfaces (e.g., glass, nucleic acids or lipid membranes) become charged in aqueous solutions. The resulting ionic distribution induces effective interactions between the charged surfaces. Stacks of like-charged…
We investigate the stability of seven inverse bicontinuous cubic phases ($G$, $D$, $P$, $C(P)$, $S$, $I-WP$, $F-RD$) in lipid-water mixtures based on a curvature model of membranes. Lipid monolayers are described by parallel surfaces to…
Recent experiments on vesicles formed from block copolymers with liquid-crystalline side-chains reveal a rich variety of vesicle morphologies. The additional internal order ("structure") developed by these self-assembled block copolymer…
A question of considerable interest to cell membrane biology is whether phase segregated domains across an asymmetric bilayer are strongly correlated with each other and whether phase segregation in one leaflet can induce segregation in the…
Morphological changes in a dry phospholipid film on a solid substrate were studied below and above the main transition temperature, between the gel and liquid-crystalline phases by phase-contrast microscopy and AFM. A Phospholipid film in…