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We study the effects of chiral constituent molecules on the macroscopic shapes attained by lipid bilayer membranes. Such fluid membranes are beautiful examples of statistical ensembles of random shapes, sometimes coupled to in-plane order.…
Colloidal microgel particles such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) shrink reversibly in an aqueous medium due to the expulsion of water at a volume phase transition temperature, VPTT $\sim$33$^\circ$C. Romeo et al. [Adv. Mater. 2010,…
We address the problem of antimicrobial peptides that create pores in lipid bilayers, focusing on voltage-temperature dependence of pore opening. Two novel experiments (voltage-clamp with alamethicin as an emblematic representative of these…
The use of colloidal supported lipid bilayers (CSLBs) has recently been extended to create colloidal joints, that - in analogy to their macroscopic counterparts - can flexibly connect colloidal particles. These novel elements enable the…
In the proximity of melting transitions of artificial and biological membranes fluctuations in enthalpy, area, volume and concentration are enhanced. This results in domain formation, changes of the elastic constants, changes in…
We study the deformation of a lipid membrane in response to a local pH modification. Experimentally, a basic solution is microinjected close to a giant unilamellar vesicle. A local deformation appears in the zone of the membrane that is…
In hydrodynamic descriptions of lipid bilayers, the membrane is often approximated as being impermeable to the surrounding, solute-containing fluid. However, biological and in vitro lipid membranes are influenced by their permeability and…
We study lipid translocation ("flip-flop") between the leaflets of a planar lipid bilayer with transition path sampling (TPS). Rare flip-flops compete with biological machineries that actively establish asymmetric lipid compositions.…
The physicochemical properties of lipid bilayers (membranes) are closely associated with various cellular functions and are often evaluated using absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies. For instance, by employing fluorescent probes that…
The pathogenesis and progression of many tumors, including hematologic malignancies is highly dependent on enhanced lipogenesis. De novo fatty-acid synthesis permits accelerated proliferation of tumor cells by providing structural…
We combine small angle scattering experiments and simulations to investigate the internal structure and interactions of composite Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-Poly(ethylene glycol) (PNIPAM-PEG) microgels. At low temperatures the…
Structurally nanoengineered antimicrobial peptide polymers (SNAPPs) are emerging as promising selective agents against bacterial membranes. In this study, we used all atom molecular dynamics simulation techniques to investigate the…
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…
The interaction of two types of vesicle systems was investigated: micrometer-sized, giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) formed from 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and submicrometer-sized, large unilamellar vesicles…
Responsive microgels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) exhibit peculiar behaviours due to the competition between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions of the constituent networks. The interpenetration of poly-acrilic…
Understanding interactions between membranes requires measurements on well-controlled systems close to natural conditions, in which fluctuations play an important role. We have determined, by grazing incidence X-ray scattering, the…
Temperature-responsive polymeric micelles have great potential in drug delivery, enhancing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing systemic toxicity. This study investigates the self-assembly of poly(ethylene…
The lateral diffusion of lipids within membrane is of paramount importance, serving as a central mechanism in numerous physiological processes including cell signaling, membrane trafficking, protein activity regulation, and energy…
We develop theory and computational methods to investigate particle inclusions embedded within curved lipid bilayer membranes. We consider the case of spherical lipid vesicles where inclusion particles are coupled through (i) intramembrane…
Combining extensive molecular dynamics simulations of lipid bilayer systems of varying chemical composition with single-trajectory analyses we systematically elucidate the stochastic nature of the lipid motion. We observe subdiffusion over…