Related papers: The excitable fluid mosaic
A microscopic model of the lipid membrane is constructed that provides analytically tractable description of the physical mechanism of the first order liquid-gel phase transition. We demonstrate that liquid-gel phase transition is…
We review recent computer simulation studies of undulating lipid bilayers. Theoretical interpretations of such fluctuating membranes are most commonly based on generalized Helfrich-type elastic models, with additional contributions of local…
We introduce a simulation strategy to consistently couple continuum biomembrane dynamics to the motion of discrete biological macromolecules residing within or on the membrane. The methodology is used to study the diffusion of integral…
Diffusion in cell membranes is not just simple two-dimensional Brownian motion, but typically depends on the timescale of the observation. The physical origins of this anomalous sub-diffusion are unresolved, and model systems capable of…
Molecular transport maintains cellular structures and functions. For example, lipid and protein diffusion sculpts the dynamic shapes and structures on the cell membrane that perform essential cellular functions, such as cell signaling.…
Using an activation mechanism reproducing facilitation, a dynamic phase transition triggered by a few active molecules was recently found in a supercooled model liquid. Prompted by this finding we investigate the presence of a similar…
A molecular dynamics study of a two dimensional system of particles interacting through a Lennard-Jones pairwise potential is performed at fixed temperature and vanishing external pressure. As the temperature is increased, a solid-to-liquid…
The biomolecules in and around a living cell -- proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates -- continuously sample myriad conformational states that are thermally accessible at physiological temperatures. Simultaneously, a given…
One of the most promising applications in nanoscience is the design of new materials to improve water permeability and selectivity of nanoporous membranes. Understanding the molecular architecture behind these fascinating structures and how…
We study a continuum model of the lipid bilayer based on minimizing the free energy of a mixture of water and lipid molecules. This paper extends previous work by Blom & Peletier (2004) in the following ways. (a) It formulates a more…
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…
We consider the liquid-vapor type phase transition for fluids confined within spatially periodic external fields. For a fluid in d=3 dimensions, the periodic field induces an additional phase, characterized by large density modulations…
Our fluid dynamics video shows the response of a layer of viscoelastic fluid to an array of four-roll mills steadily rotating underneath. When the relaxation time of the fluid is sufficiently long, the fluid divides into "cells" with a…
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…
This paper is concerned with the diffusion of a fluid through a viscoelastic solid undergoing large deformations. Using ideas from the classical theory of mixtures and a thermodynamic framework based on the notion of maximization of the…
Recent work has highlighted roles for thermodynamic phase behavior in diverse cellular processes. Proteins and nucleic acids can phase separate into three-dimensional liquid droplets in the cytoplasm and nucleus and the plasma membrane of…
The behavior of lipid bilayer is important to understand the functionality of cells like the trafficking of ions between cells. Standard procedures to explore the properties of lipid bilayer and hemifused states typically use either…
The theory of irreversible thermodynamics for arbitrarily curved lipid membranes is presented here. The coupling between elastic bending and irreversible processes such as intra-membrane lipid flow, intra-membrane phase transitions, and…
Active motions of a biological membrane can be induced by non-thermal fluctuations that occur in the outer environment of the membrane. We discuss the dynamics of a membrane interacting hydrodynamically with an active wall that exerts…
We theoretically investigate the relaxation dynamics of a nearly-flat binary lipid bilayer membrane by taking into account the membrane tension, hydrodynamics of the surrounding fluid, inter-monolayer friction and mutual diffusion in each…