Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 4: Membranes and Vesicles I

BP 4.6: Talk

Monday, March 31, 2014, 16:30–16:45, HÜL 386

Cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles by membrane tubes — •Michael Raatz, Thomas R. Weikl, and Reinhard Lipowsky — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Theory and Bio-Systems, Potsdam, Germany.

The bioactivity of nanoparticles crucially depends on their ability to cross biomembranes. Recent simulations indicate the cooperative wrapping and internalization of spherical nanoparticles in tubular membrane structures. We systematically investigated the energy gain of this cooperative wrapping by minimizing the energies of the rotationally symmetric shapes of the membrane tubes and of membrane segments wrapping single particles. We found that the energy gain for the cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles in membrane tubes relative to their individual wrapping as single particles strongly depends on the ratio ρ/R of the particle radius R and the range ρ of the particle-membrane adhesion potential. For a potential range of the order of one nanometer, the cooperative wrapping in tubes is highly favorable for particles with a radius of tens of nanometers and intermediate adhesion energies, but not for particles that are significantly larger.