Related papers: Geodesic curvature driven surface microdomain form…
The effect of asymmetry in the transbilayer lipid distribution on the dynamics of phase separation in fluid vesicles is investigated numerically for the first time. This asymmetry is shown to set a spontaneous curvature for the domains that…
Multi-component membranes such as ternary mixtures of lipids and cholesterol can exhibit coexistence regions between two liquid phases. When such membranes adhere to a corrugated substrate, the phase separation process strongly depends on…
Many coarse-grained models have been developed for equilibrium studies of lipid bilayer membranes. To achieve in simulations access to length-scales and time-scales difficult to attain in fully atomistic molecular dynamics, these…
In order to study a one-dimensional analogue of the spontaneous curvature model for two-component lipid bilayer membranes we consider planar curves that are made of a material with two phases. Each phase induces a preferred curvature to the…
The interplay of membrane proteins is vital for many biological processes, such as cellular transport, cell division, and signal transduction between nerve cells. Theoretical considerations have led to the idea that the membrane itself…
We focus on the derivation and analysis of a model for multi-component phase separation occurring on biological membranes, inspired by observations of lipid raft formation. The model integrates local membrane composition with local membrane…
Intracellular protein patterns regulate a variety of vital cellular processes such as cell division and motility, which often involve dynamic changes of cell shape. These changes in cell shape may in turn affect the dynamics of…
Understanding dynamic and complex interaction of biological membranes with extracellular matrices plays a crucial role in controlling a variety of cell behavior and functions, from cell adhesion and growth to signaling and differentiation.…
Curvature-sensing and curvature-remodeling proteins are known to reshape cell membranes, and this remodeling event is essential for key biophysical processes such as tubulation, exocytosis, and endocytosis. Curvature-inducing proteins can…
The mammalian cell membrane is embedded with biomolecular condensates of protein and lipid clusters, which interact with an underlying viscoelastic cytoskeleton network to organize the cell surface and mechanically interact with the…
Cholesterol plays an essential role in biological membranes and is crucial for maintaining their stability and functionality. It is necessary for a variety of membranes, including planar bilayers, liposomes, curved bilayers, nanodiscs, and…
We develop a geometric foundation of microcanonical thermodynamics in which entropy and its derivatives are determined from the geometry of phase space, rather than being introduced through an a priori ensemble postulate. Once the minimal…
We report on the modeling of the dynamics of confined lipid membranes. We derive a thin film model in the lubrication limit which describes an inextensible liquid membrane with bending rigidity confined between two adhesive walls. The…
Phase separation within polymer networks plays a central role in shaping the structure and mechanics of both synthetic materials and living cells, including the formation of biomolecular condensates within cytoskeletal networks. Previous…
The ability to measure the mean and Gaussian curvature in lipid mesophases is important in our understanding of their formation and properties, and can be achieved both experimentally and computationally. Here we show that curvature can be…
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…
Motivated to understand the behavior of biological filaments interacting with membranes of various types, we study a theoretical model for the shape and thermodynamics of intrinsically-helical filaments bound to curved membranes. We show…
Rafts, or functional domains, are transient nano- or mesoscopic structures in the plasma membrane and are thought to be essential for many cellular processes such as signal transduction, adhesion, trafficking and lipid/protein sorting.…
In this work, we develop a two-component coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) model for simulating the erythrocyte membrane. This proposed model possesses the key feature of combing the lipid bilayer and the erythrocyte cytoskeleton,…
Specific lipid environments are necessary for the establishment of protein signalling platforms in membranes, yet their origin has been highly debated. We present a continuum, exactly solvable model of protein induced local demixing of…