Pore dynamics in a liquid membrane

ORAL

Abstract

It is known that vesicles formed from lipid bilayer membranes are used for transportation of a toxic drug to a target, where the drug is released by pore creation. The pores in a membrane show a rather nontrivial dynamics, which thus far has been studied by means of simplified models. In the present talk, we describe the pore dynamics in a stretched membrane, which is considered as a two-dimensional viscous or viscoelastic liquid medium surrounded by a three-dimensional ambient viscous liquid. In the case of a viscoelastic membrane, a Lagrangian approach, which allows to account for large displacements, is applied. A closed equation for the pore radius is derived and investigated.

Authors

  • Alexander Nepomnyashchy

    Department of Mathematics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

  • Vladimir Volpert

    Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University