Description of Research Area

A03: Function | Proposed Research Projects (2016-2017)

Membrane Deformation of Liposomes Entrapping Viscoelastic Solution under External Perturbations
Leader YANAGISAWA, Miho Department of Applied Physics, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology URL : https://sites.google.com/g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/yanagisawa-lab/
Research Subject In living cells, cell membranes entrap viscoelastic solution of a dense polymer blend. The cytoplasmic viscoelastic solution should affect the cell shape. We recently report the membrane deformation of liposomes entrapping various concentrations of a polymer blend under a hypertonic condition. When the cytoplasmic viscosity becomes larger than a critical value, deformation patterns of liposomes change from bud formation to tube formation. It means that the cytoplasmic viscosity determines the membrane deformation. The purpose of this project is to study the membrane deformation of liposomes under a thermal or non-thermal fluctuation where strong correlation between the membranes and entrapping polymers appears.