The Motility of Lipid Vesicles Due to Phase Transition in Transmemerance Proteine

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Heidari, Maziar | 2010

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Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
Language: Farsi
Document No: 41501 (08)
University: Sharif University of Technology
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Jalali, Mir Abbas
Abstract:
Phospholipid vesicles are able to carry drugs or DNA to infected or cancerous cells. The blood flow can carry them to their target positions but their performance will be enhanced if they complete their attack by swimming in final stages of their journey. Vesicles built only by lipid molecules have rotational symmetry and undergo a random motion in their solvents without having a preferred direction. In this project, we break the symmetrical shape of phospholipid vesicles by a cluster of transmembrane proteins. We use a triangulated model of the membrane, apply the method of multi-particle collision dynamics to the motion of solvent particles, and simulate the motility of vesicles for various curvatures of the protein cluster. Our results show that proteinembedded membranes exhibit long distance random walks in the direction determined by the cluster location. We vary the curvature of the protein cluster through a time-irreversible process and show that the vesicle can swim in low-Reynolds flow regimes
Keywords:
Biological Membrane ; Mobility ; Transmembrane Protein ; Multi Particle Collision Dynamics (MPCD) ; Phospholipid Vesicles