Related papers: Flatness and Intrinsic Curvature of Linked-Ring Me…
Mechanically bonded membranes of interlocked ring polymers are a significant generalization of conventional elastic sheets, where connectivity is provided by covalent bonding, and represent a promising class of topological meta-materials.…
We present Monte Carlo computer simulations for melts of semiflexible randomly knotted and randomly concatenated ring polymers on the fcc lattice and in slit confinement. Through systematic variation of the slit width at fixed melt density,…
Biological membranes are shaped by various proteins that either generate inward or outward membrane curvature. In this article, we investigate the membrane morphologies induced by mixtures of arc-shaped particles with coarse-grained…
Motivated by the observation of positive Gaussian curvature in kinetoplast DNA networks, we consider the effect of linking chirality in square lattice molecular chainmail networks using Langevin dynamics simulations and constrained gradient…
Molecular topology of polymers plays a key role in determining their physical properties. We studied herein the topological effects on the static and dynamic properties of a 2D catenated network of DNA rings called a kinetoplast.…
Besides direct molecular interactions, proteins and nanoparticles embedded in or adsorbed to membranes experience indirect interactions that are mediated by the membranes. These membrane-mediated interactions arise from the membrane…
We introduce and study the behavior of a tethered membrane of non-zero thickness embedded in three dimensions subject to an effective self-attraction induced by hydrophobicity arising from the tendency to minimize the area exposed to a…
Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they…
We analytically study membrane mediated interactions between inclusions embedded in a tubular membrane. We model inclusions as constraints coupled to the curvature tensor of the membrane tube. First, as special test cases, we analyze the…
The shapes of cell membranes are largely regulated by membrane associated, curvature active, proteins. We use a numerical model of the membrane with elongated membrane inclusions, recently developed by us, which posses spontaneous…
A phenomenological Landau elasticity for the shape, dilation, and lipid-tilt of bilayer membranes is developed. The shape mode couples with the sum of the monolayers' tilt, while the dilation mode couples with the difference of the…
In multicomponent membranes, internal scalar fields may couple to membrane curvature, thus renormalizing the membrane elastic constants and destabilizing the flat membranes. Here, a general elasticity theory of membranes is considered that…
Living materials such as membranes, cytoskeletal assemblies, cell collectives and tissues can often be described as active solids -- materials that are energized from within, with elastic response about a well defined reference…
Cell membranes interact via anchored receptor and ligand molecules. Central questions on cell adhesion concern the binding affinity of these membrane-anchored molecules, the mechanisms leading to the receptor-ligand domains observed during…
Mixtures of polymers of varying topologies and stiffnesses display complex emergent rheological properties that often cannot be predicted from their single-component counterparts. For example, entangled blends of ring and linear polymers…
The adhesion of cell membranes is mediated by the binding of membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins. In this article, we review recent results from simulations and theory that lead to novel insights on how the binding equilibrium…
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…
The Kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) is a two-dimensional Olympic-ring-like network of mutually linked 2.5 kb-long DNA minicircles found in certain parasites called Trypanosomes. Understanding the self-assembly and replication of this structure are…
Cell adhesion proteins typically form stable clusters that anchor the cell membrane to its environment. Several works have suggested that cell membrane protein clusters can emerge from a local feedback between the membrane curvature and the…
We have studied biomembranes with grafted polymer chains using a coarse-grained membrane simulation, where a meshless membrane model is combined with polymer chains. We focus on the polymer-induced entropic effects on mechanical properties…