Andrey Gurtovenko: "Defect-Mediated Trafficking across Cell Membranes: Insights from in Silico Modeling"

Andrey Gurtovenko, Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

Defect-Mediated Trafficking across Cell Membranes: Insights from in Silico Modeling

Defect-mediated trafficking across cell membranes is of tremendous interest because of its physiological relevance and because this activity can be modulated for some important biomedical and biotechnological applications. To induce formation of transient structural defects (e.g. pores) in membranes, various factors such as external electric and mechanical forces, shock waves, surfactants, antimicrobial peptides, and polyelectrolytes could be applied to the membrane. Here we employ atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study formation of water pores in lipid membranes due to strong electric field (electroporation) as well as small amphiphilic molecules. Remarkably, in both cases a molecular level picture of pore formation turns out to be very similar which can be considered as a signature of the generic nature of the phenomenon observed.

A. A. Gurtovenko, J. Anwar, I. Vattulainen, Chemical Reviews 110, 6077-6103 (2010).