Theory and simulation of soft matter: polymers, surfactants, colloids, liquid crystals. Biophysics: self-organization of microtubules in living cells, modelling of interaction of phospholipid bilayers with nano-objects: carbon nanotubes, polymers, nanoparticles.
 

 
SoftMat group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
url: visit our webpage

OBJECTIVES
The project is based on a recent publications showing the importance of membrane tension for interaction of nanoparticles with cells1–3. Deformation of cells and compression of lipid bilayers by strongly adsorbing nanoparticles is related to a non-chemical and non-biological mechanism of recently discovered antibacterial action of nanoparticles.
(i) Molecular Dynamics, Langevin dynamics, numerical surface evolvers, as […]

Adv. Mat. 32 (52), 2005679 (2020)
Denver P. Linklater, Vladimir A. Baulin, Xavier Le Guével, Jean‐Baptiste Fleury, Eric Hanssen, The Hong Phong Nguyen, Saulius Juodkazis, Gary Bryant, Russell J. Crawford, Paul Stoodley, Elena P. Ivanova

It is commonly accepted that nanoparticles (NPs) can kill bacteria; however, the mechanism of antimicrobial action remains obscure for large NPs that […]

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124(3), 038001 (2020)
Yachong Guo, Marco Werner, Jean Baptiste Fleury and Vladimir A. Baulin

Cholesterol is a crucial component of mammalian cell membranes that takes part in many vital processes. It is generally accepted that cholesterol stabilizes the membrane and induces transitions into ordered states. In contrast to expectations, we demonstrate that cholesterol can […]

This project is focused on studying the diversity of microorganisms living in the Mediterranean sea: fungi, bacterias and algae.
Requirements: Master degree in biology, biochemistry, biotechnology
Submission date before 9 January 2020
For more details contact: [email protected]

Scientific Reports, 9, 4694 (2019)
Berardo M. Manzi, Marco Werner, Elena P. Ivanova, Russell J. Crawford and Vladimir A. Baulin
Recent technological advances have allowed the development of a new generation of nanostructured materials, such as those displaying both mechano-bactericidal activity and substrata that favor the growth of mammalian cells. Nanomaterials that come into contact with biological […]

Langmuir, January (2019)
S. Cheeseman, Vi Khanh Truong, V. Walter, F. Thalmann, C. M. Marques, Eric Hanssen, J. Vongsvivut, M. Tobin, V. A. Baulin, S. Juodkazis, S. MacLaughlin, G. Bryant, R. J. Crawford, E. P. Ivanova
The waxy epicuticle of dragonfly wings contains a unique nanostructured pattern that exhibits bactericidal properties. In light of emerging concerns of […]

Nanoscale, December (2018)
André Dias, Marco Werner, Kevin Ward, Jean-Baptiste Fleury, Vladimir A. Baulin
Blood circulation is the main distribution route for systemic delivery and the possibility to manipulate red blood cells by attaching nanoparticles to their surface provides a great opportunity for cargo delivery into tissues. Nanocarriers attached to red blood cells can be delivered to […]

ACS Nano, November (2018)
Yachong Guo, Marco Werner, Ralf Seemann, Vladimir A Baulin, and Jean-Baptiste Fleury
Increasing awareness of bioeffects and toxicity of nanomaterials interacting with cells puts in focus the mechanisms by which nanomaterials can cross lipid membranes. Apart from well-discussed energy-dependent endocytosis for large objects and passive diffusion through membranes by solute molecules, there can […]

J. Chem. Phys., 149, 014902 (2018)
Adrien Berthault, Marco Werner, Vladimir A. Baulin
The Single Chain Mean Field theory is used to link coarse-grained models of amphiphilic molecules with analytical models for membrane elasticity, where phenomenological parameters are deduced from explicit molecular models and force fields. We estimate the elastic constants based on the free energy of […]

ACS Nano, 114(9), 2165–2173 (2018)
Denver P. Linklater, Michael De Volder, Vladimir A Baulin, Marco Werner, Sarah Jessl, Mehdi Golozar, Laura Maggini, Sergey Rubanov, Eric Hanssen, Saulius Juodkazis, Elena P. Ivanova
The properties of lipid bilayers in sucrose solutions have been intensely scrutinized over recent decades because of the importance of sugars in the field of biopreservation. […]

Scientific Reports, 8, 8413 (2018)
Susan Stuhr, Vi Khanh Truong, Jitraporn Vongsvivut, Tobias Senkbeil, Yang Yang, Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Vladimir A. Baulin, Marco Werner, Sergey Rubanov, Mark J. Tobin, Peter Cloetens, Axel Rosenhahn, Robert N. Lamb, Pere Luque, Richard Marchant, Elena P. Ivanova
Insects represent the majority of known animal species and exploit a variety of fascinating […]

Interface Focus, 8, 20170060, (2018)
Denver P. Linklater, Vladimir A. Baulin, Saulius Juodkazis and Elena P. Ivanova
Growing interest in the bactericidal effect of graphene and graphene-derived nanomaterials has led to the investigation and effective publication of the bactericidal effects of the substratum, many of which present highly conflicting material. The nature of bacterial cell death on graphene […]

J. Synchrotron Rad. 25, 874-877 (2018)
Vi Khanh Truong, Jitraporn Vongsvivut, Nipuni Mahanamanam Geeganagamage, Mark J. Tobin, Pere Luque, Vladimir A. Baulin, Marco Werner, Shane Maclaughlin, Russell J. Crawford and Elena P. Ivanova
Damselflies Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis exhibiting black wings are found in the western Mediterranean, Algeria, France, Italy, Spain and Monaco. Wing pigmentation is caused by the presence of melanin, which is involved […]

Materials 2018, 11(4), 605 (2018); https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11040605
Jason V. Wandiyanto, Denver Linklater, Pallale G. Tharushi Perera, Anna Orlowska, Vi Khanh Truong, Helmut Thissen, Shahram Ghanaati, Vladimir A. Baulin, Russell J. Crawford, Saulius Juodkazis and Elena P. Ivanova
Titanium is a biocompatible material that is frequently used for making implantable medical devices. Nanoengineering of the surface is the common method for increasing material […]

Biointerphases 13, 028501 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1116/1.5022145
M. Werner, T. Auth, P. A. Beales, J. B. Fleury, F. Höök, H. Kress, R. C. Van Lehn, M. Müller, E. P. Petrov, L. Sarkisov, J.-U. Sommer and V. A. Baulin
Synthetic polymers, nanoparticles, and carbon-based materials have great potential in applications including drug delivery, gene transfection, in vitro and in vivo imaging, and […]

23-24 March 2018. Management meeting in Ischia island, Naples, Italy

Agenda:
Venue:
Meeting will be held in Hotel “Le Querce”,
Via Baldassarre Cossa, 55 – Ischia, ITALY
Attending people:

Vladimir Baulin (URV, Spain, coordinator)
Marco Werner (URV, Spain, project manager)

Ian Tucker (Unilever, UK)

 John Seddon (Imperial, UK)

 Fernando Bresme (Imperial, UK)

 Domenico Lombardo (CNR, Italy)

 Elena Ivanova (Swinburne, Australia)

 Carlos Marques (CNRS, France)

 Kevin Ward (Biopharma, UK)

 Jian R […]

Nano-Micro Lett., 10, 36 (2018)
Chris M. Bhadra, Marco Werner, Vladimir A. Baulin, Vi Khanh Truong, Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Song Ha Nguyen, Armandas Balcytis, Saulius Juodkazis, James Y. Wang, David E. Mainwaring, Russell J. Crawford, Elena P. Ivanova
One of the major challenges faced by the biomedical industry is the development of robust synthetic surfaces that can resist […]

Materials, 11(1) 60 (2018)
Anna Orlowska, Pallale Tharushi Perera, Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Andre Dias,
Huu Khuong Duy Nguyen, Shahram Ghanaati, Vladimir A. Baulin, Russell J. Crawford, Elena P. Ivanova
Cellular attachment plays a vital role in the differentiation of pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. PC12 cells are noradrenergic clonal cells isolated from the adrenal medulla of Rattus norvegicus and studied extensively […]

Acta Biomaterialia, 59, 148-157 (2017).
Elena P. Ivanova, Song Ha Nguyen, Yachong Guo, Vladimir A. Baulin, Hayden K. Webb, Vi Khanh Truong, Jason V. Wandiyanto, Christopher J. Garvey, Peter
J. Mahon, David E. Mainwaring, Russell J. Crawford
The wings of insects such as cicadas and dragonflies have been found to exhibit nanostructure arrays that are assembled from fatty acids, […]

Biomaterials, 140, 138-149 (2017).
Martin Stefanic, Kevin Ward, Harvey Tawfik, Ralf Seemann, Vladimir Baulin, Yachong Guo, Jean-Baptiste Fleury, Christophe Drouet
Cryopreservation of red blood cells (RBC) is an important method for maintaining an inventory of rare RBC units and managing special transfusion circumstances. Currently, in a clinical setting, glycerol is used as cryoprotectant against freezing damage. After […]

Computer Physics Communications, 216, 95–101(2017).
Yachong Guo, Vladimir A. Baulin
We present parallel version of Rosenbluth Self-Avoiding Walk generation method implemented on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) using CUDA libraries. The method scales almost linearly with the number of CUDA cores and the method efficiency has only hardware limitations. The method is introduced in two realizations: on a […]

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2017). doi:10.1007/s00253-017-8205-9
Vi Khanh Truong, Nipuni Mahanamanam Geeganagamage, Vladimir A. Baulin, Jitraporn Vongsvivut, Mark J. Tobin, Pere Luque, Russell J. Crawford, Elena P. Ivanova
Nanostructured insect wing surfaces have been reported to possess the ability to resist bacterial colonization through the mechanical rupture of bacterial cells coming into contact with the surface. In this […]

Soft Matter, 13, 3690-3700 (2017)
Sivaramakrishnan Ramadurai, Marco Werner, Nigel K.H. Slater, Aaron Martin, Vladimir A. Baulin, Tia Keyes
Deeper understanding of the molecular interactions between polymeric materials and the lipid membrane is important across a range of applications from permeation for drug delivery to encapsulation for immuno-evasion. Using highly fluidic microcavity supported lipid bilayers, we studied […]

ACS Macro Lett., 6, pp 247–251 (2017)
Marco Werner, Jasper Bathmann, Vladimir A. Baulin, and Jens-Uwe Sommer
We propose a theory to predict the passive translocation of flexible polymers through amphiphilic membranes. By using a generic model for the potential felt by a monomer across the membrane we calculate the free energy profile for homopolymers as a function […]

18 November 2016 – Amposta, Spain
As a part of the annual event “Week of Science” celebrated in Catalonia (Setmana de la Ciència a Catalunya), Vladimir Baulin (researcher at URV) and Pere Luque (entomologist in the Museu de les Terres de l’Ebre) presented an open lecture for general public about research on dragonflies in Catolonia. The event took place […]

Science Advances 2 (11), e1600261 (2016)
Yachong Guo, Emmanuel Terazzi, Ralf Seemann, Jean Baptiste Fleury and Vladimir A. Baulin

Hydrophobic nanoparticles introduced into living systems may lead to increased toxicity, can activate immune cells, or can be used as nanocarriers for drug or gene delivery. It is generally accepted that small hydrophobic nanoparticles are blocked by lipid bilayers and accumulate in the […]

Langmuir: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b02601 (2016)
Duy H. K. Nguyen, Vy T. H. Pham, Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Chris M. Bhadra, Anna Orlowska, Shahram Ghanaati, Berardo Mario Manzi, Vladimir A Baulin, Saulius Juodkazis, Peter Kingshott, Russell J Crawford, and Elena P. Ivanova

The protein adsorption of two human plasma proteins, albumin (Alb) and fibronectin (Fn) onto synthetic nanostructured bactericidal material, black silicon […]

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces: 8(34) 22025-22031 (2016)
Vy T. H. Pham, Vi Khanh Truong, Anna Orlowska, Shahram Ghanaati, Mike Barbeck, Patrick Booms, Alex James Fulcher, Chris M. Bhadra, Ricardas Buividas, Vladimir A Baulin, Charles James Kirkpatrick, Pauline Doran, David E. Mainwaring, Saulius Juodkazis, Russell J Crawford, and Elena P. Ivanova

With an aging population and the consequent […]

30 September 2016. Management meeting in Salou, Spain
Agenda:
Venue:
Meeting will be held in Hotel Magnolia Salou,
Carrer de Madrid, 8, 43840 Salou, Tarragona
Attending people:

Vladimir Baulin (URV, Spain, coordinator)
Marco Werner (URV, Spain, project manager)
Jens-Uwe Sommer (IPF, Dresden)
 Domenico Lombardo (CNR, Italy)

 Elena Ivanova (Swinburne, Australia)

 Fabrice Thalmann (CNRS, France)

 Marc Schmutz (CNRS, France)

PLoS ONE 11(7): e0158135 (2016)
The Hong Phong Nguyen , Vy T. H. Pham , Song Ha Nguyen , Vladimir A. Baulin, Rodney J. Croft, Brian Phillips, Russell J. Crawford, Elena P. Ivanova

The mechanisms by which various biological effects are triggered by exposure to an electromagnetic field are not fully understood and have been the subject […]

Soft Matter, 12, 263-271 (2016)
Yachong Guo, Vladimir Baulin and Fabrice Thalmann

An original coarse-grained model for peroxidised phospholipids is presented, based on the MARTINI lipid force field. This model results from a combination of thermodynamic modelling and structural information on the area per lipid, which have been made available recently. The resulting coarse-grained lipid molecules form stable bilayers, […]

The 4th workshop on biomaterials and their interactions with biological and model membranes was held in Salou (October 19th — 21th). Following up to the previous three workshops in 2011, 2013 and 2014, this meeting mainly focused on the interactions of synthetic polymers, nanoparticles, surfactants, proteins, small biomolecules with biological and model phospholipid membranes. Participants […]

With the sound of waves breaking on the sand, a new generation of scientists was learning, questioning, and interacting with their peers. Such a social experience is always fruitful because it helps people to understand each other and create unique moments which will be remembered.
The summer school in Roccalumera (Sicily, Italy) aimed to bring together […]

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (2015) 99 (16), 6831-6840 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-015-6572-7
Vi K. Truong, Vy T. H. Pham, A. Medvedev, R. Lapovok, Y. Estrin, T. C. Lowe, V. Baulin, V. Boshkovikj, C. J. Fluke, R. J. Crawford, E. P. Ivanova

The surface nanotopography and architecture of medical implant devices are important factors that can control the extent of bacterial attachment. The ability to prevent bacterial attachment […]

Computational Electrostatics for Biological Applications
2015, pp 111-119 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-12211-3_5
Beibei Huang and Vladimir A. Baulin

This work describes a method to solve Poisson–Boltzmann Equation (PBE) with steep gradients when common methods of solving non-linear equations do not converge or work inefficiently. This is particularly the case for relatively large boundary conditions leading to rapid changes of the solution in a narrow […]

Biophysical Chemistry, (2015) 207, 82–89 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpc.2015.09.004
Alexander Muratov and Vladimir A. Baulin
Directional growth caused by gravitropism and corresponding bending of plant cells has been explored since 19th century, however, many aspects of mechanisms underlying the perception of gravity at the molecular level are still not well known. Perception of gravity in root and shoot gravitropisms is usually attributed to gravisensitive […]

ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b03368 (2015)
Vy T. H. Pham, Vi Khanh Truong, Matthew D. J. Quinn, Shannon M. Notley, Yachong Guo, Vladimir A. Baulin, Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Russell J. Crawford, and Elena P. Ivanova

Pristine graphene, its derivatives, and composites have been widely reported to possess antibacterial properties. Most of the studies simulating the interaction between bacterial cell […]

8th-11th April 2015 – School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, UK

It has now been six months since ESRs started their PhD, giving them a more accurate overview of their topic, its limits and its possible extensions. This meeting which was attended by most of the ITN SNAL Network and was organized by Jian […]