Related papers: Micron-sized domains in quasi single-component gia…
We report diffusion coeffcients of micron-scale liquid domains in giant unilamellar vesicles of phospholipids and cholesterol. The trajectory of each domain is tracked, and the mean square displacement grows linearly in time as expected for…
We study the phase separation of binary lipid mixtures that form bicontinuous cubic phases. The competition between non-uniform Gaussian membrane curvature and line tension leads to a very rich phase diagram, where we observe symmetry…
The response of lipid bilayers to osmotic stress is an important part of cellular function. Previously, in [Oglecka et al. 2014], we reported that cell-sized giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) exposed to hypotonic media, respond to the…
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…
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…
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…
To explain the appearance of heterogeneities in the plasma membrane, I propose a hypothesis which begins with the observation that fluctuations in the membrane curvature are coupled to the difference between compositions in one leaf and the…
Soluble alpha-amylases play an important role in the catabolism of polysaccharides. In this work, we show that the enzyme can interact with the lipid membrane and further alter its mechanical properties. Vesicle fluctuation spectroscopy is…
We investigate the microphase separation in a membrane composed of charged lipid, by taking into account explicitly the electrostatic potential and the ion densities in the surrounding solvent. While the overall (membrane and solvent)…
A novel two-leaflet description of lipid membranes is proposed. Within its framework, phase separation phenomena in multicomponent biological membranes are analyzed. As we show, interactions between the leaflets tend to suppress macroscopic…
We consider the formation of finite-size domains in lipid bilayers consisting of saturated and hybrid lipids. First, we describe a monolayer model that includes a coupling between a compositional scalar field and a two-dimensional vectorial…
Membrane morphology and its dynamic adaptation regulate many cellular functions, which are often mediated by membrane proteins. Advances in DNA nanotechnology have enabled the realization of various protein-inspired structures and functions…
Morphological transitions of phase separation associated with the asymmetry of lipid composition were investigated using micrometer-sized vesicles of lipid bilayers made from a lipid mixture. The complete macro-phase-separated morphology…
The study of interactions between biomimetic membranes and micron-sized particles is crucial for understanding various biological processes. Here, we control microparticle spontaneous engulfment by giant lipid vesicles by tuning particle…
We use a lattice model of a ternary mixture containing saturated and unsaturated lipids with cholesterol (Chol), to study the structural properties characterizing the coexistence between the liquid-disordered and liquid-ordered phases.…
The membrane curvature of cells and intracellular compartments continuously adapts to enable cells to perform vital functions, from cell division to signal trafficking. Understanding how membrane geometry affects these processes in vivo is…
A biomimetic minimalist model membrane was used to study the mechanism and kinetics of cell-free in vitro HIV-1 Gag budding from a giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV). Real time interaction of Gag, RNA and lipid leading to the formation of…
We investigate how an externally imposed curvature influences lipid segregation on two-phase-coexistent membranes. We show that the bending-modulus contrast of the two phases and the curvature act together to yield a reduced effective line…
We study the phase behavior of multicomponent lipid bilayer vesicles that can exhibit intriguing morphological patterns and lateral phase separation. We use a modified Landau-Ginzburg model capable of describing spatially uniform phases,…
According to the lipid raft hypothesis, biological lipid membranes are laterally heterogeneous and filled with nanoscale ordered "raft" domains, which are believed to play an important role for the organization of proteins in membranes.…