Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 4: Membranes and vesicles II (joint session BP/CPP)

BP 4.5: Talk

Monday, April 1, 2019, 16:00–16:15, H10

Stochastic dynamics of nanoparticle and virus uptake — •Felix Frey, Falko Ziebert und Ulrich Schwarz — Institute for Theoretical Physics and BioQuant-Center, Heidelberg University, Germany

Biological cells constantly transport material and information across their plasma membrane. In particular cells routinely take up particles of diverse shapes and sizes between 10-300 nm, especially viruses, which often come in either spherical or cylindrical shapes. In general, particle uptake requires that the gain in adhesion energy overcomes the cost of plasma membrane bending. We first show by using a simple deterministic model that cylindrical particles are taken up faster than spherical particles for the same radius and volume. We then investigate stochastic effects, which might be relevant because of the small system size. We find that now spherical particles can be taken up faster because the mean first passage time is affected by multiplicative noise for the sphere rather than additive noise as in the case of the cylinder. Our findings suggest that stochasticity is equally important as geometry during particle uptake.