Monday 11 October 2010
Organiser: Björn Stinner

All talks will be in Room B3.02 Mathematics Institute, Zeeman Building

Programme

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch (Common Room)

13.30 - 13.45 Björn Stinner (Mathematics, University of Warwick) Introduction

13.45 - 14.30 Matthew Turner (Physics, University of Warwick)
Membrane Fluctuations
Fluid membranes are generally "soft" in the sense that the thermal energy
scale kT can populate significant fluctuations. We will discuss examples in
which such membranes are perturbed, both by thermal and non-thermal forces,
and comment on how statistical mechanical theories can be related to
experiments.
14.30 - 14.45 Discussion

14.45 - 15.30 Martin Müller (Biophysics, Université Paul Verlaine, Metz)
Membrane-Mediated Interactions - Entropic Forces on Curved Membranes
Particles embedded in a fluctuating interface experience forces and torques
mediated by the deformations and by the thermal fluctuations of the medium.
In this talk I will focus on the toy problem of two cylindrical particles
adhering to a lipid membrane. We will see that the entropic contribution
strongly enhances the curvature-mediated repelling force between the two
cylinders. This is contrary to the usual attractive Casimir force in the absence of
curvature-mediated interactions. For large separation between the cylinders,
the renormalization of the surface tension of a flat membrane due to thermal
fluctuations is retrieved.
15.30 - 15.45 Discussion

15.45 - 16.15 Tea (Common Room)

16.15 - 17.00 Corinne Smith (Life Sciences, University of Warwick)
The Geometric Challenges of a Clathrin-Coated Vesicle
Clathrin trimers self-assemble to form a polyhedral lattice around
endocytic transport vesicles. This geometric array is speedily removed
from the vesicles during their life cycle by two proteins, the molecular
chaperone, Hsc70, and auxilin. We have obtained kinetic data for the
disassembly process using an in vitro model system. Analysis of these
data reveals further insights into the mechanism of action of Hsc70 and
auxilin on clathrin.
17.00 - 17.30 Discussion

17.30 - 18.30 Snacks

poster of programme