Related papers: Probing single protein dynamics on liposome surfac…
We have developed a new model to describe FRET efficiency (E FRET) between freely-diffusing membrane probes in phase-separated bilayers (Finite Phase-separation FRET, or FP-FRET), that in principle applies to any system where phase domain…
Directly examining subcellular mechanics whilst avoiding excessive strain of a live cell requires the precise control of light stress on very small areas, which is fundamentally difficult. Here we use a glass nanopipet out of contact with…
An Ising--like model of proteins is used to investigate the mechanical unfolding of the Green Fluorescent Protein along different directions. When the protein is pulled from its ends, we recover the major and minor unfolding pathways…
Protein function is executed at the molecular surface, where shape and chemistry act together to govern interaction. Yet most comparison methods treat these aspects separately, privileging either global fold or local descriptors and missing…
Fluorescence microscopy is essential in biological and medical research, providing critical insights into cellular structures. However, limited by optical diffraction and background noise, a substantial amount of hidden information is still…
In the last decade evidence has accumulated that small domains of 50-700 nm in diameter are located in the exoplasmic leaflet of the plasma membrane. Most of these domains supposedly consist of specific sets of lipids and proteins, and are…
Despite decades of extensive research, the large-scale analysis of membrane proteins remains a difficult task. This is due to the fact that membrane proteins require a carefully balanced hydrophilic and lipophilic environment, which optimum…
Ever since the raft model for biomembranes has been proposed, the traditional view of biomembranes based on the fluid-mosaic model has been altered. In the raft model, dynamical heterogeneities in multi-component lipid bilayers play an…
Many essential cellular processes, including cell division and the establishment of cell polarity during embryogenesis, are regulated by pattern-forming proteins. These proteins often need to bind to a substrate, such as the cell membrane,…
Basic understanding of biological membranes is of paramount importance as these membranes comprise the very building blocks of life itself. Cells depend in their function on a range of properties of the membrane, which are important for the…
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) using multiphoton excitation techniques is now finding an important place in quantitative imaging of protein-protein interactions and intracellular physiology. We review here the recent…
The life of a cell is governed by highly dynamical microscopic processes. Two notable examples are the diffusion of membrane receptors and the kinetics of transcription factors governing the rates of gene expression. Different fluorescence…
The spatio-temporal organization of proteins within the cell membrane can affect numerous biological functions, including cell signaling, communication, and transportation. Deviations from normal spatial arrangements have been observed in…
We establish a method, called pbFFS for photobleaching Fluctuation Fluorescence Spectroscopy, which aims at characterizing molecules or particles labelled with a unknown distribution or fluorophores. Using photobleaching as a control…
For some time now, we have been using a FRET-based strategy to make high-resolution studies of phase behavior in ternary lipid-raft membrane mixtures. Our FRET experiments can be carried out on ordinary, polydisperse multilamellar vesicle…
This paper studies the fusogenicity of cationic liposomes in relation to their surface distribution of cationic lipids and utilizes membrane phase separation to control this surface distribution. It is found that concentrating the cationic…
The dynamics of active viscoelastic surfaces plays an important role in biological systems. One prominent example is the actin cortex, a thin bio-polymer sheet underneath the outer membrane of biological cells which combines active…
Electromechanical coupling is ubiquitous in biological systems with examples ranging from simple piezoelectricity in calcified and connective tissues to voltage-gated ion channels, energy storage in mitochondria, and electromechanical…
Cell division, aging, and stress recovery triggers spatial reorganization of cellular components in the cytoplasm, including membrane bound organelles, with molecular changes in their compositions and structures. However, it is not clear…
Lipid membranes form the barrier between the inside and outside of cells and many of their subcompartments. As such, they bind to a wide variety of nano- and micrometer sized objects and, in the presence of strong adhesive forces, strongly…