Related papers: Mechanical performance of hybrid polymer-lipid ves…
Soluble alpha-amylases play an important role in the catabolism of polysaccharides. In this work, we show that the enzyme can interact with the lipid membrane and further alter its mechanical properties. Vesicle fluctuation spectroscopy is…
Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…
Spatial separation of suspended particles based on contrast in their physical or chemical properties forms the basis of various biological assays performed on lab-on-achip devices. To electronically acquire this information, we have…
We have generalized the Edwards' method of collective description of dense polymer systems in terms of effective potentials to polymer blends in the presence of a surface. With this method we have studied conformationally asymmetric…
Lipid bilayer membranes are the fundamental biological barriers that permit life. The bilayer dynamics largely participates in orchestrating cellular workings and is characterized by substantial stability together with extreme plasticity…
A theoretical approach has been undertaken in order to model the thermodynamic equilibrium of a vesicle adhering to a flat substrate. The vesicle is treated in a canonical description with a fixed number of sites. A finite number of these…
Despite the wide existence of vesicles in living cells as well as their important applications like drug-delivery, the underlying mechanism of vesicle fusion/fission remains under debate. Here, we develop a constrained self-consistent field…
A simplified, pseudoplastic rheology characterized by constant viscosity plateaus above and below a transition strain rate is applied to axisymmetric, gravitationally driven spreading of a thin fluid film with constant volume flux source in…
Flexible transparent electrodes, encompassing the combination of optical transparency and electrical conductivity, empower numerous optoelectronic applications. While the main efforts nowadays concentrate on developing wire meshes and…
Nanolayered lamellae are common structures in nanoscience and nanotechnology, but most are nearly symmetric in layer thickness. Here, we report on the structure and mechanics of highly asymmetric and thermodynamically stable soft--hard…
Liposomes that achieve a heterogeneous and spatially organized surface through phase separation have been recognized to be a promising platform for delivery purposes. However, their design and optimization through experimentation can be…
Hydrophobic molecules such as oils and certain drugs can be encapsulated between the two leaflets of an amphiphilic bilayer in both lipid and polymer systems. We investigate the case where the hydrophobic molecules are incompatible with the…
We demonstrate that tunable attractive (bonding) and repulsive (anti-bonding) forces can arise in highly asymmetric structures coupled to external radiation, a consequence of the bonding/anti-bonding level repulsion of guided-wave…
Lipid membranes form the barrier between the inside and outside of cells and many of their subcompartments. As such, they bind to a wide variety of nano- and micrometer sized objects and, in the presence of strong adhesive forces, strongly…
The self-assembly of submerged cold-plasma-treated polyethylene beads is reported. The plasma-treated immersed millimetrically-sized polyethylene beads formed well-ordered 2D quasi-crystalline structures. The submerged floating of light…
Thixotropic yields stress fluids are complex materials such as paint, drilling mud, and food products like ketchup or yogurt. They behave as a solid below a certain shear stress (called yield stress), and flows as a liquid above it. The…
Technical challenges in molecule sensing and chemical detection have created an increasing demand for transformative materials with high sensitivity and specificity. Biohybrid nanopores have attracted growing interest as they can ideally…
Self-assembly of colloidal particles due to elastic interactions in nematic liquid crystals promises tunable composite materials and can be guided by exploiting surface functionalization, geometric shape and topology, though these means of…
Suspension of particles in a fluid solvent are ubiquitous in nature, for example, water mixed with sugar or bacteria self-propelling through mucus. Particles create local flow perturbations that can modify drastically the effective…
We present a unified discussion of three types of near-spherical amoeboid microswimmers, driven by periodic, axially symmetric, achiral deformations (swim strokes): a solid deformable body, a vesicle with incompressible fluid membrane, and…