Related papers: Non-universal Impact of Cholesterol on Ionic Liqui…
I consider the effect of a small concentration of a molecule, such as a short-chain alcohol, on the miscibility transition temperature of a giant plasma membrane vesicle. For concentrations sufficiently small such that the system can be…
We propose a model describing the phase behavior of two-component membranes consisting of binary mixtures of electrically charged and neutral lipids. We take into account the structural phase transition (main-transition) of the hydrocarbon…
Melittin, a natural antimicrobial peptide comprising 26 amino acid residues, can kill bacteria by inducing pores in cell membranes. Clinical applications of melittin as an antibiotic require a thorough understanding of its poration…
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…
Biological membranes are known to form various structural motifs, from lipid bilayers to tubular filaments and networks facilitating e.g. adhesion and cell-cell communication. To understand the biophysical processes underpinning lipid-lipid…
We apply the method developed in Ref. [S.B.Chernyshuk and B.I.Lev, Phys.Rev.E, \textbf{81}, 041701 (2010)] for theoretical investigation of colloidal elastic interactions between axially symmetric particles in the confined nematic liquid…
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…
Steric hindered frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) have been shown to activate hydrogen molecules, and their reactivity is strongly determined by the geometric parameters of the Lewis acid s and bases. A recent experimental study showed that…
A mathematical model of atherosclerosis of a blood vessel is advanced with regard for the entry of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) into blood. For the first time, the influence of cytokines on the inflammation of a blood vessel at the…
Ionic liquids (ILs), also known as room-temperature molten salts, are composed of pure ions with melting points usually below 100 degrees centigrade. Because of their low volatility and vast amounts of species, ILs can serve as "green…
Discotic ionic liquid crystals (DILCs) consist of self-assembled superdiscs of cations and anions that spontaneously stack in linear columns with high one-dimensional ionic and electronic charge mobility, making them prominent model systems…
To understand mechanism of cell-membrane compartmentalization, we studied coarse-grained model systems consisting of lipid and cholesterol molecules. Cholesterol plays crucial role in lateral phase segregation in the bilayered lipid…
The role of electrostatics on the interfacial properties of polyelectrolyte microgels has been discussed controversially in the literature. It is not yet clear if, or how, Coulomb interactions affect their behavior under interfacial…
Biological membranes are elastic media in which the presence of a transmembrane protein leads to local bilayer deformation. The energetics of deformation allow two membrane proteins in close proximity to influence each other's equilibrium…
A question of considerable interest to cell membrane biology is whether phase segregated domains across an asymmetric bilayer are strongly correlated with each other and whether phase segregation in one leaflet can induce segregation in the…
We investigate how an externally imposed curvature influences lipid segregation on two-phase-coexistent membranes. We show that the bending-modulus contrast of the two phases and the curvature act together to yield a reduced effective line…
We introduce a microscopic model of a lipid with a charged headgroup and flexible hydrophobic tails, a neutral solvent, and counter ions. Short-ranged interactions between hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties are included as are the Coulomb…
The Fluid Mosaic Model by Singer & Nicolson proposes that biological membranes consist of a fluid lipid layer into which integral proteins are embedded. The lipid membrane acts as a two-dimensional liquid in which the proteins can diffuse…
We discuss theoretically, using density-functional theory, the phase stability of nematic and smectic ordering in a suspension of platelets of the same thickness but with a high polydispersity in diameter, and study the influence of…
Ionic Coulomb blockade in nanopores is a phenomenon that shares some similarities but also differences with its electronic counterpart. Here, we investigate extensively this phenomenon using all-atom molecular dynamics of ionic transport…