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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Spontaneous Formation and Rearrangement of Artificial Lipid Nanotube Networks as a Bottom-Up Model for Endoplasmic Reticulum
Published on: January 22, 2019
Diacetylenic lipid tubules: experimental evidence for a chiral molecular architecture
Abstract:
Molecular self-assembly is of key importance for the rational design of advanced materials. To investigate the causal relation between molecular structure and the consequent self-assembled microstructure, self-assembled tubules of diacetylenic lipids were studied. Circular-dichroism studies give experimental evidence that the formation of tubules is driven by chiral molecular packing, in agreement with recent theories of tubules. On the basis of these results, a molecular mechanism for the formation of tubules is proposed.
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