Research

Nanoparticle-Induced Permeability of Lipid Membranes

Sergey Pogodin, Marco Werner, Jens-Uwe Sommer, Vladimir A. Baulin

ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn3028858 (2012)

Monte Carlo simulations using the bond fluctuation method with explicit solvent reveal the mechanism of enhanced permeability of lipid bilayers induced by the adsorption of nanoparticles with controlled hydrophobicity. Simulation results indicate an adsorption transition of nanoparticles on the bilayer in a […]

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Homo-polymers with balanced hydrophobicity translocate through lipid bilayers and enhance local solvent permeability

Marco Werner, Jens-Uwe Sommer and Vladimir A. Baulin

Soft Matter, 8, 11708-11716 (2012)

Recent experimental studies indicate that polymeric structures with a well-adjusted balance of amphiphilic parts may translocate through self-assembled phospholipid bilayers and enhance the passive trans-membrane transport of smaller molecules. Using a coarse grained lattice Monte Carlo model with explicit solvent we investigate self-assembled lipid […]

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Permeability of lipid bilayers induced by polymers

Lipid bilayers emerge by self-organization of amphiphilic molecules and are the essential component of membranes of living cells. An important task of them is the selective exchange of substances between the cell and its environment. This becomes particularly interesting for delivering foreign molecules and RNA into the cell. In the classical view of cell biology […]

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Critical adsorption controls translocation of polymer chain through lipid bilayers and permeation of solvent

J.-U. Sommer, M. Werner and V. A. Baulin

Europhysics Letters, 98, 18003 (2012)

Monte Carlo simulations using an explicit solvent model indicate a new pathway for translocation of a polymer chain through a lipid bilayer. We consider a polymer chain composed of repeat units with a given hydrophobicity and a coarse-grained model of a lipid bilayer in […]

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