Multiresponsive Behavior of Biomembranes and Giant Vesicles

Biomembranes consist of molecular bilayers with many lipid and protein components. The fluidity of these bilayers allows them to respond to different environmental cues by changing their local molecular composition as well as their shape and topology. On the nanometer scale, this multi-responsive behavior can be studied by molecular dynamics simulations, which provide both snapshots and movies of the bilayer conformations. The general conceptual framework for these simulations is provided by the theory of curvature elasticity. The latter theory also explains the behavior of giant vesicles as observed by optical microscopy on the micrometer scale. The present volume describes new insights as obtained from recent developments in analytical theory, computer simulations, and experimental approaches. The seven chapters of the volume are arranged in a bottom-up manner from smaller to larger scales. These chapters address the refined molecular dynamics and multiscale modeling of biomembranes, their morphological complexity and adhesion, the engulfment and endocytosis of nanoparticles, the fusion of giant unilamellar vesicles, as well as recent advances in microfluidic technology applied to model membranes.

• Bridging the gap between lipid molecules and giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs)
• Integrated view obtained from analytical theory, computer simulations, and experimental observations
• Multiresponsive behavior and morphological complexity of biomembranes

Reinhard Lipowsky studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and did his doctoral studies at the University of Munich. He defended his doctoral thesis in 1982 with summa cum laude, spent two years as a research associate at Cornell University, USA, and was an Associate Professor at the University of Munich until he became a Full Professor
at the University of Cologne and a Department Head at the Institute of Solid State Research, Research Center Jülich. In 1993, he accepted an offer from the Max Planck Society and became one of the founding directors for the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam.

Since 1993, Reinhard Lipowsky is responsible for the department of Theory and Biosystems at the Max Planck Institute. The department currently consists of ten research groups with about 60 students and researchers. The research is based on a combination of analytical theory, computer simulations, and experimental methods.
The main objective of these research activities is to understand the hidden dimensions of self-organization and pattern formation in biomimetic and biological systems. The molecular building blocks of these systems join “by themselves” and form a variety of supermolecular assemblies, which then interact to produce even larger structures
and networks.

Reinhard Lipowsky is responsible for the International Max Planck Research School on "Multiscale Biosystems", is a scientific member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW), and has a honorary professorship at the University of Potsdam and at the Humboldt University Berlin.