Related papers: Mechanical performance of hybrid polymer-lipid ves…
In Nature, liquids often circulate in channels textured with leaflets, cilia or porous walls that deform with the flow. These soft structures are optimized to passively control flows and inspire the design of novel microfluidic and soft…
Polymer vesicles are stable robust vesicles made from block copolymer amphiphiles. Recent progress in the chemical design of block copolymers opens up the exciting possibility of creating a wide variety of polymer vesicles with varying fine…
Lipid bilayers often form high-curvature configurations due to self-assembly conditions or certain biological processes. However, particle-based simulations of lipid membranes are predominantly of flat lipid membranes because planar…
A minimalist simulation model for lipid bilayers is presented. Each lipid is represented by a flexible chain of beads in implicit solvent. The hydrophobic effect is mimicked through an intermolecular pair potential localized at the…
Lipid membranes, the barrier defining living cells and many of their sub-compartments, bind to a wide variety of nano- and micro-meter sized objects. In the presence of strong adhesive forces, membranes can strongly deform and wrap the…
The bending rigidity $k_c$ of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane…
A model of lipid bilayers made of a mixture of two lipids with different average compositions on both leaflets, is developed. A Landau hamiltonian describing the lipid-lipid interactions on each leaflet, with two lipidic fields $\psi_1$ and…
Inspired by the cellular design of plant tissue, we present a new approach to make versatile, tough, highly water-swelling composites. We embed highly swelling hydrogel particles inside tough, water-permeable, elastomeric matrices. The…
We reproduce the symmetric and asymmetric ``rippled'' $P_{\beta'}$ states of lipid membranes by Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse-grained molecular model for lipid-solvent mixtures. The structure and properties compare favorably with…
Heterogeneities in the cell membrane due to coexisting lipid phases have been conjectured to play a major functional role in cell signaling and membrane trafficking. Thereby the material properties of multiphase systems, such as the line…
The structure of membrane-active peptides and their interaction with lipid bilayers can be studied in oriented lipid membranes deposited on solid substrates. Such systems are desirable for a number of surface-sensitive techniques. Here we…
We propose a model that accounts for the budding transition of asymmetric two-component lipid domains, where the two monolayers (leaflets) have different average compositions controlled by independent chemical potentials. Assuming a…
Semiconductor pixel detectors are widely established in High Energy Physics (HEP) and Medical physics for their high spatial resolution and tracking capabilities. Research on both monolithic detectors and hybrid detectors is ongoing.…
Vesicles are important surrogate structures made up of multiple phospholipids and cholesterol distributed in the form of a lipid bilayer. Tubular vesicles can undergo pearling i.e., formation of beads on the liquid thread akin to the…
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…
The membrane curvature of cells and intracellular compartments continuously adapts to enable cells to perform vital functions, from cell division to signal trafficking. Understanding how membrane geometry affects these processes in vivo is…
We investigate a model of an asymmetric bilayer consisting of sphigomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, and cholesterol in the outer leaflet, and phosphatidyl\-ethanolamine, (PE), phosphatidylserine, and cholesterol in the inner leaflet.…
We study, using dissipative particle dynamics simulations, the effect of active lipid flip-flop on model fluid bilayer membranes. We consider both cases of symmetric as well as asymmetric flip-flops. Symmetric flip-flop leads to a steady…
Conjugated polymer fibers can be used to manufacture various soft fibrous optoelectronic devices, significantly advancing wearable devices and smart textiles. Recently, conjugated polymer-based fibrous electronic devices have been widely…
We simulate a phase-separating a bilayer in which the leaflets experience a direct coupling favouring local compositional symmetry ("registered" bilayer phases), and an indirect coupling due to hydrophobic mismatch that favours strong local…