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Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Obtention of Giant Unilamellar Hybrid Vesicles by Electroformation and Measurement of their Mechanical Properties by Micropipette Aspiration
Published on: January 19, 2020
Long-range attraction of particles adhered to lipid vesicles
Raphael Sarfati1, Eric R Dufresne2
1Department of Applied Physics and Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA.
Abstract:
Many biological systems fold thin sheets of lipid membrane into complex three-dimensional structures. This microscopic origami is often mediated by the adsorption and self-assembly of proteins on a membrane. As a model system to study adsorption-mediated interactions, we study the collective behavior of micrometric particles adhered to a lipid vesicle. We estimate the colloidal interactions using a maximum likelihood analysis of particle trajectories. When the particles are highly wrapped by a tense membrane, we observe strong long-range attractions with a typical binding energy of 150k_{B}T and significant forces extending a few microns.
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