Related papers: A Simple Experimental Model to Investigate Force R…
Entry of micro- or nano-sized objects into cells or vesicles made of lipid membranes occur in many processes such as entry of viruses in host cells, microplastics pollution, drug delivery or biomedical imaging. Here, we investigated the…
We have developed a two dimensional stochastic molecular dynamics model for the description of intra cellular collective motion of bio motors, in particular Kinesins, on a microtubular track. The model is capable or reproducing the…
Cell membranes are studded with protrusions that were thoroughly analyzed with electron microscopy. However, the nanometer-scale three-dimensional motions generated by cell membranes to fit the topography of foreign surfaces and initiate…
We construct viscous fluid flow sourced by a force dipole embedded in a cylindrical fluid membrane, coupled to external embedding fluids. We find analytic expressions for the flow, in the limit of infinitely long and thin tubular membranes.…
We consider the hydrodynamics of lipid bilayers containing transmembrane proteins of arbitrary shape. This biologically-motivated problem is relevant to the cell membrane, whose fluctuating dynamics play a key role in phenomena ranging from…
Nanopores are both a tool to study single-molecule biophysics and nanoscale ion transport, but also a promising material for desalination or osmotic power generation. Understanding the physics underlying ion transport through nano-sized…
Nanometer-sized columns of condensed water molecules are created by an atomic-resolution force microscope operated in ambient conditions. Unusual stepwise decrease of the force gradient associated with the thin water bridge in the…
Nanofabrication techniques for achieving dimensional control at the nanometer scale are generally equipment-intensive and time-consuming. The use of energetic beams of electrons or ions has placed the fabrication of nanopores in thin…
Molecular rotors form twisted conformations upon photoexcitation, with their fluorescent relaxation time serving as a measure of viscosity. They have been used to assess membrane viscosities but yield higher values compared to other…
Endocytosis is an essential biological process for the trafficking of macromolecules (cargo) and membrane proteins in cells. In yeast cells, this involves the invagination of a tubular structure on the membrane and the formation of…
We describe several unexpected phenomena, caused by a solid-solid phase transition (gel-to-crystal) typical for all main classes of lipid substances - phospholipids, triglycerides, diglycerides, alkanes, etc. We discovered that this…
Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs) are model membranes formed at solid substrate surfaces. This architecture renders the membrane experimentally accessible to surface sensitive techniques used to study their properties, including Atomic Force…
Nano-scale fluid transport has vast applications spanning from water desalination to biotechnology [1,2]. It is possible to pump fluids in nano-conduits using pressure gradients [3], thermal methods [4], electric [5,6] and magnetic fields…
The initiation of directional cell motion requires symmetry breaking that can happen both with or without external stimuli. During cell crawling, forces generated by the cytoskeleton and their transmission through mechanosensitive adhesions…
This work analyzes the viscous flow and elastic deformation created by the forced axial motion of a rigid cylinder within an elastic liquid-filled tube. The examined configuration is relevant to various minimally invasive medical procedures…
By the combination of optical tweezer manipulation and digital video microscopy, the flexural rigidity of single glycolipid "nano" tubes has been measured below the transition temperature at which the lipid tubules are transformed into…
Relatively short peptides, such as toxins and antimicrobial-peptides, are known to insert themselves into cell membranes. On the basis of simple bead-spring models for the membrane lipids, the peptide, and water, detailed processes of the…
We use a simple and efficient computer model to investigate the physical properties of bilayer membranes. The amphiphilic molecules are modeled as short rigid trimers with finite range pair interactions between them. The pair potentials…
Liposome vesicles tend to align with an applied magnetic field. This is due to the directional magnetic susceptibility difference of the lipids which form the membrane of these vesicles. In this work a model of liposome vesicles exposed to…
Kinesin motors can induce a buckling instability in a microtubule with a fixed minus end. Here we show that by modifying the surface with a protein-repellent functionalization and using clusters of kinesin motors, the microtubule can…