Ricerc@Sapienza

In the vast majority of physiological processes, lipid membranes and their relative proteins are the fundamental actors controlling the mechanics of the phenomena. The fluid lipid bilayer acts as a boundary for the cell and as a support for membrane proteins. It represents the stage for all life-related processes involving signal trafficking, compounds adsorption, environmental sensing, cell-cell interactions, and cell¿s reproduction and death. The ability of the membrane to deform and remodel its shape is crucial in all the aforementioned scenarios, and it is often driven by the curvature-inducing proteins crowding the cell¿s surface. This project aims at shedding light on the complex multiscale phenomenon of protein aggregation on the bilayer, usually driven by direct protein-protein potentials and, more interestingly, curvature-mediated long-range interactions. Implementing a suitable phase field model for proteins and lipids interactions, it will be possible to numerically investigate the underlying physics of these systems.