Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

A Microfluidic-based Hydrodynamic Trap for Single Particles
Published on: January 21, 2011
Narrow escape time to a structured target located on the boundary of a microdomain
Jürgen Reingruber1, Enrique Abad, David Holcman
1Department of Computational Biology, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France. reingrub@biologie.ens.fr
Abstract:
The forward binding rate of chemical reactions is the reciprocal of the mean time for a Brownian molecule to hit its molecular target. When the target is embedded in the surface of a microdomain, this time is known as the narrow escape time, and it has been computed for various geometries. However, for large targets that extend from the surface far into the cytosol the classical computations do not apply and new ones are needed. In this work we generalize the narrow escape time formula to a three-dimensional spine attached to the boundary. We treat in detail the case of an ellipsoidal spine and validate our analysis by Brownian simulations. Finally, we compute the narrow escape time when the spine is uniformly covered by small partially absorbing disks and estimate the homogenized trapping rate of such a patchy surface.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Woodward–Hoffmann Selection Rules and Microscopic Reversibility
Protein Diffusion in the Membrane
Linear Approximation in Time Domain
For a simple pendulum with a mass evenly distributed along its length and the center of mass located at half the pendulum's length, the...
Collisions in Multiple Dimensions: Problem Solving
A small car of mass 1,200 kg traveling east at 60 km/h collides at an intersection with a truck of mass 3,000 kg traveling due north at 40 km/h. The two vehicles are locked together. What is the...
Elastic Collisions: Case Study
Region of Convergence of Laplace Tarnsform
Consider a decaying exponential signal that begins at a specific time. When deriving its Laplace transform, the time-domain variable is replaced with a complex variable. This substitution...

