Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 5: Cell Adhesion

BP 5.3: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2007, 11:15–11:30, H44

Adhesion of Membranes with Active Stickers — •Bartosz Rozycki, Thomas Weikl, and Reinhard Lipowsky — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Science Park Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

The adhesion of biological membranes has been theoretically studied for some time but primarily for equilibrium systems. Some of the adhesion proteins like integrins, however, are active molecules, which means that their conformational transitions are driven by external sources of energy such as ATP hydrolysis. These active, externally driven conformational transitions lead to local perturbations in interactions between membranes and keep the system away from equilibrium. We study the influence of these active processes on membrane adhesion in the framework of stochastic lattice models [1-3]. We show that the membrane adhesiveness exhibits a resonance as the rate of switching of the active adhesion molecules is varied [1,3].

[1] "Adhesion of Membranes with Active Stickers", Bartosz Rozycki, Reinhard Lipowsky, Thomas R. Weikl, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 048101 (2006). [2] "Adhesion of Membranes via Switchable Molecules", Bartosz Rozycki, Thomas R. Weikl, Reinhard Lipowsky, Phys. Rev. E 73, 061908 (2006). [3] "Stochastic Resonance for Adhesion of Membranes with Active Stickers", Bartosz Rozycki, Thomas R. Weikl, Reinhard Lipowsky, submitted to European Physical Journal E.