Membrane Hydrodynamics and Their Role on Protein Interactions
Prof. Naomi Oppenheimer (Flatiron Institute, USA)
Since the 1970s vast research has been devoted to studying the equilibrium properties of membranes as elastic surfaces. Much less attention has been given to their in-plane dynamics, which is crucial for protein function. In this talk, I will describe the basics of membrane hydrodynamics and give a few implications of the results. From a coarse-grained perspective, the membrane could be considered as a quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) colloidal suspension, where the lipids play the role of the molecular fluid, and the proteins play the role of particle inclusions. We will see a couple of implications of membrane hydrodynamics: (1) Hindrance of chemical reactions taking place in a membrane, (2) Fluid mediated self-assembly of ATP synthase proteins in a membrane, or of artificial rotating colloids in a soap film.