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The anisotropic phase-field crystal model recently proposed and used by Prieler et al. [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 21, 464110 (2009)] is derived from microscopic density functional theory for anisotropic particles with fixed orientation.…
Consider a homogenous fluid membrane, or vesicle, described by the Helfrich-Canham energy, quadratic in the mean curvature. When the membrane is axially symmetric, this energy can be viewed as an `action' describing the motion of a…
Cell plasma membranes display a dramatically rich structural complexity characterized by functional sub-wavelength domains with specific lipid and protein composition. Under favorable experimental conditions, patterned morphologies can also…
We have extended the Helfrich's spontaneous curvature model [M. Iwamoto and Z. C. Ou-Yang. Chem. Phys. Lett. \textbf{590}(2013)183; Y. X. Deng, et.al., EPL. \textbf{123}(2018)68002] of the equilibrium vesicle shapes by adding the…
The microscopic mechanisms involved in the formation/dissociation of methane hydrate confined at the nanometer scale are unraveled using advanced molecular modeling techniques combined with a mesoscale thermodynamic approach. By means of…
This study systematically investigates the dynamics of the bacterial transition from free-swimming to surface adhesion, a process characterized by both height $h$ and inclination angle $\Psi$. The surface entrapment process is divided into…
Recent experimental investigations into Hydra regeneration revealed a remarkable phenomenon: the morphological transformation of a tissue fragment from the incipient spherical configuration to a tube-like structure - the hallmark of a…
Molecular sorting is a fundamental process that allows eukaryotic cells to distill and concentrate specific chemical factors in appropriate cell membrane subregions, thus endowing them with different chemical identities and functional…
The detachment dynamics of a fluid membrane with an isotropic spontaneous curvature from a flat substrate are studied by using meshless membrane simulations. The membrane is detached from an open edge leading to vesicle formation. With…
We use numerical simulations and linear stability analysis to study the dynamics of an active liquid crystal film on a substrate in the regime where the passive system would be isotropic. Extensile activity builds up local orientational…
We employ the phospholipid bilayer membranes of giant unilamellar vesicles as a free-standing environment for the growth of membrane-integrated ultrathin phospholipid crystals possessing a variety of shapes with 6-fold symmetry. Crystal…
We present a mesoscale description of deformations and defects in thin, flexible sheets with crystalline order, tackling the interplay between in-plane elasticity, out-of-plane deformation, as well as dislocation nucleation and motion. Our…
Spatial organisation is a hallmark of all living cells, and recreating it in model systems is a necessary step in the creation of synthetic cells. It is therefore of both fundamental and practical interest to better understand the basic…
Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) on the unilamellar vesicle populations (diameter 500 and 1000 angstrom) was used to characterize lipid vesicles from dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) at three phases (gel, ripple, and liquid).…
The adhesion of a lipid membrane vesicle to a fixed substrate is examined from a geometrical point of view. This vesicle is described by the Helfrich hamiltonian quadratic in mean curvature; it interacts by contact with the substrate, with…
Mitochondria are critical organelles in eukaryotes that produce the energy currency ATP. In nerve axons, mitochondria are known to align at almost regular intervals to maintain a constant ATP concentration, but little is known about the…
Using a generalized order parameter gradient expansion within density functional theory, we derive a phase-field-crystal model for liquid crystals composed by apolar particles in three spatial dimensions. Both the translational density and…
In this work, we study the adhesion of multi-component vesicle membrane to both flat and curved substrates, based on the conventional Helfrich bending energy for multi-component vesicles and adhesion potentials of different forms. A phase…
The electrostatic contribution to spontaneous membrane curvature is calculated within Poisson-Boltzmann theory under a variety of assumptions and emphasizing parameters in the physiological range. Asymmetric surface charges, either fixed…
The biological function of membranes is closely related to their softness, which is often studied through the membranes' thermally-driven fluctuations. The analysis commonly assumes that the relaxation rate of a pure bending deformation is…