Related papers: Interactions between proteins bound to biomembrane…
Many of the cell membrane vital functions are achieved by the self-organization of the proteins and biopolymers embedded in it. The protein dynamics are in part determined by its drag. A large number of these proteins can polymerize to form…
Electrochemical phenomena in biology often unfold in confined geometries where micrometer- to millimeter-scale domains coexist with nanometer-scale interfacial diffuse charge layers. We analyze a model lipid membrane-electrolyte system…
Motivated by a long-standing debate concerning the nature and interrelations of surface-tension variables in fluid membranes, we reformulate the thermodynamics of a membrane vesicle as a generic two-dimensional finite system enclosing a…
The study of the interactions of living adherent cells with mechanically stable (visco)elastic materials enables understanding and exploiting physiological phenomena mediated by cell-extracellular communication. However, insight on the…
Particles bound to an interface interact because they deform its shape. The stresses that result are fully encoded in the geometry and described by a divergence-free surface stress tensor. This stress tensor can be used to express the force…
In living cells, protein-rich condensates can wet the cell membrane and surfaces of membrane-bound organelles. Interestingly, many phase-separating proteins also bind to membranes leading to a molecular layer of bound molecules. Here we…
We use computer simulations and a simple free energy model to study the response of a bilayer membrane to the application of a negative (compressive) mechanical tension. Such a tension destabilizes the long wavelength undulation modes of…
Embedding rigid inclusions into elastic matrix materials is a procedure of high practical relevance, for instance for the fabrication of elastic composite materials. We theoretically analyze the following situation. Rigid spherical…
We study the indentation of a free-standing lipid membrane suspended over a nanopore on a hydrophobic substrate by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We find that in the course of indentation, the membrane bends at the point of…
A very common strategy to penetrate the cell membrane and access the internal compartment, consists of using sharp tips or nano needles. However recent experiments of cell penetration by atomic force microscopy tips show, contrary to…
Eukaryotic cells intrinsically change their shape, by changing the composition of their membrane and by restructuring their underlying cytoskeleton. We present here further studies and extensions of a minimal physical model, describing a…
The friction and adhesion between elastic bodies are strongly influenced by the roughness of the surfaces in contact. Here we develop a multiscale molecular dynamics approach to contact mechanics, which can be used also when the surfaces…
We consider the renormalization of the bending and Gaussian rigidity of model membranes induced by long-range interactions between the components making up the membrane. In particular we analyze the effect of a finite membrane thickness on…
This work describes models and numerical approximations that describe the mechanical behavior of deformable continua with embedded structural members, such as rigid bodies, beams, shells, etc. The continuum formulation extends an idea first…
We consider a one-dimensional elastic membrane, which is pushed by growing filaments. The filaments tend to grow by creating local protrusions in the membrane and this process has surface energy and bending energy costs. Although it is…
When an elastic object is dragged through a viscous fluid tangent to a rigid boundary, it experiences a lift force perpendicular to its direction of motion. An analogous lift mechanism occurs when a rigid symmetric object translates…
We introduce and study the behavior of a tethered membrane of non-zero thickness embedded in three dimensions subject to an effective self-attraction induced by hydrophobicity arising from the tendency to minimize the area exposed to a…
The capacity of proteins to interact specifically with one another underlies our conceptual understanding of how living systems function. Systems-level study of specificity in protein-protein interactions is complicated by the fact that the…
A tethered vesicle, which consists of a cylindrical membrane tube and a spherical vesicle, is produced by a mechanical force that is experimentally imposed by optical tweezers and a micropipette. This tethered vesicle is employed for…
The dynamic interplay between collective cell movement and the various molecules involved in the accompanying cell signalling mechanisms plays a crucial role in many biological processes including normal tissue development and pathological…