THEORETICAL STUDY OF MOLECULAR ORGANIZATION IN CELL MEMBRANES

Abstract

Cell is the fundamental building blocks of all living matter. The cell consists of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane where the cell membrane is composed of lipids and protein molecules. Lipid molecules form bilayer structures in cell membrane when they are in aqueous environments. All membrane proteins carry out their cellular functions while they are sitting at membrane sites. Due to the collective behavior of these molecules, they undergo self-organization and form various structures, such as phase separation and domain formations. We use a thermodynamics approach to study three-component molecular organization by modeling the interaction between molecules using spin variables. Converting the interacting spins into an effectively non-interacting variables using a mean-field theory, we calculate the Helmholtz free energy (HFE). Then by investigating the HFE, we construct the phase diagram and study the molecular organization in cell membranes.