Mathematical Biology Seminar

Jon Karl Sigurdsson
UC Santa Barbara

Fluctuating Lipid Bilayer Membranes with Diffusing Protein Inclusions : Hybrid Continuum-Particle Numerical Methods

Wednesday, December 5, 2012, at 3:05pm
LCB 225


Many proteins through their geometry and specific interactions with lipids induce changes in local membrane material properties. To study such phenomena we introduce a new hybrid continuum-particle description for the membrane-protein system that incorporates protein interactions, hydrodynamic coupling, and thermal fluctuations. We investigate how collective protein effects influence membrane mechanical properties. We discuss interesting numerical aspects that are required to obtain good translation invariance. Finally, we discuss a coarse grained model that incorporates important hydrodynamics.