Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Membrane Morphology and Adhesion

BP 27.6: Talk

Friday, February 29, 2008, 12:00–12:15, C 243

Phase Separation in Membranes on Corrugated Substrates — •Bartosz Rozycki, Thomas R. Weikl, and Reinhard Lipowsky — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Science Park Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

We study separation of two liquid phases in lipid membranes that strongly adhere to a corrugated solid substrate. Both mean field theory and Monte Carlo simulations show that the spatial distribution of the two liquid phases are governed by membrane curvature. [1] For small curvature amplitudes, the membrane undergoes complete separation of the two liquid phases. For larger membrane curvature amplitudes, the two phases form patterns which follow the membrane curvature contour lines. These theoretical results are in agreement with recent experiments [2,3] and explain a possible control mechanism of domain arrangement in biological membranes.

[1] Bartosz Rozycki, Thomas R. Weikl, Reinhard Lipowsky (in preparation). [2] Tae-Young Yoon et. al, Nature Matherials 5, 281 (2006). [3] Raghuveer Parthasarathy, Cheng-han Yu, and Jay T. Groves, Langmuir 22, 5095 (2006).