Videos

Coarse-graining of cholesterol containing lipid bilayers

Presenter
November 3, 2008
Abstract
I will discuss multiscale modeling of biological membranes. The approach is based on the so-called Inverse Monte Carlo (IMC) method and the Henderson theorem. The specific examples [1] will include single and multicomponent bilayers using different levels of coarse-graining, and the improvent of accuracy of the coarse-grained models by using a thermodynamic constraint. The motivation for including a constraint is that the basic IMC does not yield physically meaningful area compressibility or surface tension in coarse-grained bilayers. The results using cholesterol containing systems show formation of denser transient regions, resembling lipid rafts, which is in accord with observations from microscopic models. Finally, I will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. References: [1] T. Murtola, E. Falck, M. Patra, M. Karttunen, I. Vattulainen, J. Chem. Phys. 121:9156-9165