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It was recently discovered that friction between surfaces bearing phosphatidylcholine (PC) lipid bilayers can be increased by two orders of magnitude or more via an externally-applied electric field, and that this increase is fully…
We investigate the mechanical properties of bilayers of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine in the gel phase by using peak force tapping with quantitative nanomechanical mapping. We study both dry and aqueous bilayers and liposomes…
The bending rigidity $k_c$ of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane…
The low sliding friction of articular cartilage in the major joints , which is crucial for its homeostasis and for joint health, has been attributed to lipid bilayers forming lubricious boundary layers at its surface. The robustness of such…
The slip behavior of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer melts flowing on non-adsorbing surfaces made of short non-entangled PDMS chains densely end-grafted to silica has been characterized. For high enough shear rates, constant slip…
The outstanding lubrication of articular cartilage in the major synovial joints such as hips and knees, essential for the joint well-being, has been attributed to boundary layers of lipids at the outer cartilage surfaces, which have very…
The results obtained from molecular dynamics simulations of the friction at an interface between polymer melts and weakly attractive crystalline surfaces are reported. We consider a coarse-grained bead-spring model of linear chains with…
In multi-component soft matter, interface properties often play a key role in determining the properties of the overall system. The identification of the internal dynamic structures in non-equilibrium situations requires the interface…
Mechanotransduction, the biological response to mechanical stress, is often initiated by the activation of mechanosensitive (MS) proteins upon mechanically induced deformations of the cell membrane. A current challenge to fully understand…
A mesoscopic coarse-grain model for computationally-efficient simulations of biomembranes is presented. It combines molecular dynamics simulations for the lipids, modeled as elastic chains of beads, with multiparticle collision dynamics for…
We report on the frictional properties of thin ($\approx \mu m$) poly(dimethylacrylamide) hydrogel films within contacts with spherical silica probes. In order to focus on the contribution to friction of interfacial dissipation, a dedicated…
We employ 100 ns molecular dynamics simulations to study the influence of cholesterol on structural and dynamic properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers in the fluid phase. The effects of the cholesterol content on the…
Many of the cell membrane vital functions are achieved by the self-organization of the proteins and biopolymers embedded in it. The protein dynamics are in part determined by its drag. A large number of these proteins can polymerize to form…
Considering a 3D sheared granular layer modeled with discrete elements, it is well known the rolling resistance significantly influences the mechanical behavior. Even if the rolling resistance role has been deeply investigated as it is…
We study diffusion coefficients of liquid domains by explicitly taking into account the two-layered structure called leaflets of the bilayer membrane. In general, the velocity fields associated with each leaflet are different and the layers…
Response of lipid bilayers to external mechanical stimuli is an active area of research with implications for fundamental and synthetic cell biology. However, there is a lack of tools for systematically imposing mechanical strains and…
Lipid structures exhibit complex and highly dynamic lateral structure; and changes in lipid density and fluidity are believed to play an essential role in membrane targeting and function. The dynamic structure of liquids on the molecular…
Bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) are an essential component of many biological systems, forming a functional barrier between the cell and the surrounding environment. When the membrane relaxes from a structural perturbation, the dynamics of…
We study the stress distribution profiles and the height and thickness fluctuations of lipid membranes in the tilted gel state by Monte Carlo simulations of a generic coarse-grained model for lipid membranes, which reproduces many known…
The interaction potential between supported floating bilayers has been determined by grazing incidence specular and off-specular scattering using synchrotron radiation. Our measurements demonstrate that floating bilayers are significantly…