PNAS 118 (31), e2104610118 (2021)
Jean-Baptiste Fleury, Vladimir A. Baulin

Estimated millions of tons of plastic are dumped annually into oceans. Plastic has been produced only for 70 y, but the exponential rise of mass production leads to its widespread proliferation in all environments. As a consequence of their large abundance globally, microplastics are also found in […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

J. Chem. Phys. 140, 174903 (2014)
Yachong Guo, Sergey Pogodin and Vladimir A. Baulin

Coarse-grained model for saturated phospholipids: 1,2-didecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DCPC), 1,2-dilauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DLPC), 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC), 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC) and unsaturated phospholipids: 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC), 1,2- dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) is introduced within the single chain mean field theory. A single set of parameters adjusted for DMPC bilayers gives an adequate description […]

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2 (19), 2785-2948 (2014)
Vy T. H. Pham, Vi Khanh Truong, David E. Mainwaring, Yachong Guo, Vladimir Baulin, Mohammad Al Kobaisi,   Gediminas Gervinskas, Saulius Juodkazis, Wendy R. Zeng, Pauline Doran, Russell J Crawford and Elena P. Ivanova

Microscale devices are increasingly being developed for diagnostic analysis although conventional lysis as an initial step presents […]

Soft Matter, 10, 4241-4247 (2014)
G. Weber, T. Charitat, M. S. Baptista, A. F. Uchoa, C. Pavani, H. C. Junqueira, Y. Guo, V. A. Baulin, R. Itri, C. M. Marques, A. P. Schroder

Oxidation can intimately influence and structurally compromise the levels of biological self-assembly embodied by intracellular and plasma membranes. Lipid peroxidation, a natural metabolic outcome of […]

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol., 97 (20), 9257-9262 (2013)
Jafar Hasan, Hayden K. Webb, Vi Khanh Truong, Sergey Pogodin, Vladimir A. Baulin, Gregory S. Watson, Jolanta A. Watson, Russell J. Crawford, Elena P. Ivanova
The nanopattern on the surface of Clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) wings represents the first example of a new class of biomaterials that can kill bacteria on contact […]

Comp. Phys. Comm., 184 (9), 2221–2229 (2013)
B. Huang and V.A. Baulin

IPEC Solver is a Windows program designed to analyze the stability of core–shell inter-polyelectrolyte complexes formed by complexation of oppositely charged block copolymers. The two-dimensional size distribution of the complexes composed by different numbers of positively or negatively charged polyelectrolytes is calculated based on the […]

Biofouling, 29 (2), 163-170 (2013)
H.K. Webb, V. Boshkovikj, C.J. Fluke, V.K. Truong, J. Hasan, V.A. Baulin, R. Lapovok, Y. Estrin, R.J. Crawford and E.P. Ivanova
Despite the volume of work that has been conducted on the topic, the role of surface topography in mediating bacterial cell adhesion is not well understood. The primary reason for this lack of […]

S. Pogodin, J. Hasan, V.A. Baulin, H.K. Webb, V.K. Truong, T.H.P. Nguyen, V. Boshkovikj, C.J. Fluke, G.S. Watson, J.A. Watson, R.J. Crawford and E.P. Ivanova

Biophys. J., 104 (4), 835-840 (2013)

The nanopattern on the surface of Clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) wings represents the first example of a new class of biomaterials that can kill bacteria […]

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 […]

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 […]

Elena P. Ivanova, Jafar Hasan, Hayden K. Webb, Vi Khanh Truong, Gregory S. Watson, Jolanta A. Watson, Vladimir A. Baulin, Sergey Pogodin, James Y. Wang, Mark J. Tobin, Christian Löbbe, Russell J. Crawford

Small, 8 (16), 2489 – 2494 (2012)

Natural superhydrophobic surfaces are often thought to have antibiofouling potential due to their self-cleaning properties. However, when […]