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Dr. Marco Werner

Institut Theorie der Polymere
+49 351 4658 747 +49 351 4658 752

Fields of Research

Simulation snapshot of a vesicle (left) and rodlike structure (right) obtained from a random starting configuration.
Hydrophobic polymer chain getting in contact with a lipid bilayer.

Theory and simulation of amphiphilic bilayer membranes interacting with macromolecules such as polymers and proteins:

  • characterization of self organized vesicles and planar membranes
  • embedding and transport phenomena of macromolecules into and through membranes depending, for instance, on their hydrophobicity
  • influence of macromolecules on shape and fluctuations of membranes
Spontaneously curved tethered membrane which is decorated by polymer chains on one side. The final publication is available at www.epj.org (DOI 10.1140/epje/i2010-10576-4)
Tethered membrane decorated by polymer chains which are in poor solvent. Octopus micelles are self organized which bend the membrane in the opposite direction than on the left figure.

Theory and simulation of polymer membranes (crosslinked monolayers of monomers):

  • self organized stiffness of perfect membranes and polymeric fractals depending on connectivity
  • spontaneous curvature induced by grafting polymer chains on one side of the membrane (decorated membranes)
  • switching between convex and concave spontaneous curvature of decorated membranes by variation of solvent quality