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Updated: Apr 1, 2026

A Nanobar-Supported Lipid Bilayer System for the Study of Membrane Curvature Sensing Proteins in vitro
Published on: November 30, 2022
Adhesive Nanoparticles as Local Probes of Membrane Curvature
Jaime Agudo-Canalejo1, Reinhard Lipowsky1
1Theory and Bio-Systems, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces , 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
Abstract:
Biological and biomimetic membranes display complex shapes with nonuniform curvature. Because the interaction of adhesive nanoparticles with such membranes depends on the local membrane curvature, different segments of the same membrane can differ in their engulfment behavior. For a single vesicle in contact with many nanoparticles, we predict ten distinct engulfment patterns as well as morphological transitions between these patterns, which are directly accessible to experiment.
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