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Cellular uptake of nanoplastics is instrumental in their environmental accumulation and transfer to humans through the food chain. Despite extensive studies using spherical plastic nanoparticles, the influence of the morphological…
Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…
Understanding how to produce forces using biomolecular building blocks is essential for the development of adaptive synthetic cells and living materials. Here we ask whether a dynamic polymer system can generate deformation forces in soft…
Scanning probe imaging and manipulation of matter is of crucial importance for nanoscale science and technology. However, its resolution and ability to manipulate matter at the atomic scale is limited by rather poor control over the fine…
A tethered vesicle, which consists of a cylindrical membrane tube and a spherical vesicle, is produced by a mechanical force that is experimentally imposed by optical tweezers and a micropipette. This tethered vesicle is employed for…
The interaction between nano- or micro-sized particles and cell membranes is of crucial importance in many biological and biomedical applications such as drug and gene delivery to cells and tissues. During their cellular uptake, the…
The shape transformations of fluid membranes induced by curved protein rods are studied using meshless membrane simulations. The rod assembly at low rod density induces a flat membrane tube and oblate vesicle. It is found that the…
The detachment dynamics of a fluid membrane with an isotropic spontaneous curvature from a flat substrate are studied by using meshless membrane simulations. The membrane is detached from an open edge leading to vesicle formation. With…
Biomolecular motor proteins that generate forces by consuming chemical energy obtained from ATP hydrolysis are pivotal for organizing broad cytoskeletal structures in living cells. The control of such cytoskeletal structures benefits…
We present a minimal model for simulating dynamics of assorted lipid assemblies in a computationally efficient manner. Our model is particle-based and consists of coarse-grained beads put together on a modular platform to give generic…
Advances in nanotechnology lead to an increasing interest in how nanoparticles interact with biomembranes. Nanoparticles are wrapped spontaneously by biomembranes if the adhesive interactions between the particles and membranes compensate…
Biomolecular condensates are formed via liquid-liquid phase separation of proteins, often together with nucleic acids, typically driven by interactions between low-affinity binding sites. The computational study of such condensates that…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
Health concerns associated with the advent of nanotechnologies have risen sharply when it was found that particles of nanoscopic dimensions reach the cell lumina. Plasma and organelle lipid membranes, which are exposed to both the incoming…
Recent experiments have shown that when a near-hemispherical lipid vesicle attached to a solid surface is subjected to a simple shear flow it exhibits a pattern of membrane circulation much like a dipole vortex. This is in marked contrast…
In order to give insights into how anisotropic nano-objects interact with living cell membranes, and possibly self-assemble, we designed magnetic nanorods with average size around 100 nm x 1$\mu$m by assembling iron oxide nanocubes within a…
We calculate the thermal Casimir effect for a dielectric tube of radius $R$ and thickness delta formed from a membrane in water. The method uses a field-theoretic approach in the grand canonical ensemble. The leading contribution to the…
This study employs molecular dynamics simulations to examine the physisorption behavior of hydrocarbon molecules on a covalent graphene-nanotube hybrid nanostructure. The results indicate that the adsorbed molecules undergo self-diffusion…
In this paper we present the results of a large-scale numerical investigation of structural properties of a model of cell membrane, simulated as a bilayer of flexible molecules in vacuum. The study was performed by carrying out extensive…
The impact of nanomaterials on lung fluids or on the plasma membrane of living cells has prompted researchers to examine the interactions between nanoparticles and lipid vesicles. Recent studies have shown that nanoparticle-lipid…