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CPM Seminar
Daniel Kandel Weizman Institute The motivation for this work comes from recent experimental biological studies. They show that cells of living organisms control the local shape of their membranes, and their biological function, by varying the local concentration of various macromolecules embedded in the membrane. I will show theoretically how embedded molecules can lead to shape instabilities in membrane vesicles, by inducing a local spontaneous curvature which depends on their concentration. The coupling between this concentration, the local curvature of the membrane and global geometrical constraints brings about shape instabilities, such as pearling in hollow membrane tubes, coiling in full tubes and tubulation in pancake-like vesicles. This work is inspired by experimental studies of artificial membrane vesicles with anchored polymer molecules.
Thursday, September 26th 2002, 15:30 |