Vladimir Baulin at URV ETSEQ DEQ (Molecular Simulation group) Tarragona: Controlled release and Polymeric drug carriers

Bio

Vladimir Baulin is an ICREA researcher at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. His research is focused on the topics in the theory of Soft matter, polymer physics and biophysics.

One of the main research lines is the development of the Single Chain Mean Field (SCMF) theory, a simulation tool able to predict the properties of nanostructures given the microscopic details of its polymeric constituents. Recent application of the SCMF theory is the modelling of interaction of phospholipid bilayers with nano-objects and self-assembled structures.

Together with coworkers, Vladimir Baulin has proposed a theoretical model for orientation of microtubules, constituents of cell cytoskeleton. He has shown that the proposed mechanism of microtubule orientation induced by mutual collisions between individual microtubules in 2D and 3D leads to global ordering and formation of orientation domains. Later, this model has been shown to describe adequately the orientation of cortical microtubules in plant cells.

Education

PhD in Physics, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Grenoble, France (2003)
MSc (with Honours), Physics Department (polymer physics), Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (2000)

Appointments

ICREA researcher; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain (since 2008)
Postdoctoral fellow; Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain (2007)
Postdoctoral fellow; Institut Charles Sadron, Strasbourg, France (2005)
Postdoctoral fellow; Institut de Physique, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France (2004)

Research interests

Theory and simulation of soft matter: polymers, surfactants, colloids, liquid crystals. Biophysics: self-organization of microtubules in living cells, modelling of interaction of phospholipid bilayers with nano-objects: carbon nanotubes, polymers, nanoparticles.

ICREA researcher
at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

Group members

Sergey Pogodin
Mechanisms of interaction of nano-objects with phospholipid membranes

Interests: Polymer physics (theory), numerical methods, objective oriented programming.

Education: Moscow State University, Physics Department, Moscow, Russia
(2007 with honors)

Sergey is a main developer of the Single Chain Mean Field (SCMF) theory and its applications. In particular, he models the self-assembly of phospholipid bilayers and their interactions with nano-objects. Understanding the mechanism of association of carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles may provide unique microscopic information which is hardly accessible in experiments. It gives insight in the structure of the phospholipid bilayers and the equilibrium free energy of association of different nano-objects. Such information may help in fundamental understanding of the mechanism of penetration or association of nano-objects with phospholipid membranes and, in future, may result in the discovery of novel efficient synthetic therapeutics potentially more efficient than natural biopolymers. Some of the results:

-S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin, "Coarse-grained models of phospholipid membranes within the single chain mean field theory", Soft Matter, 6, 2216 - 2226 (2010),
-S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin, "Can a carbon nanotube pierce through a phospholipid bilayer?", ACS Nano, 4 (9), 5293–5300 (2010),
-S. Pogodin, N.K.H. Slater and V.A. Baulin, "Surface patterning of carbon nanotubes can enhance their penetration through a phospholipid bilayer", ACS Nano, 5 (2), 1141–1146 (2011),
-S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin, "Equilibrium insertion of nanoscale objects into phospholipid bilayers", Current Nanoscience, 7 (5), 721-726 (2011)

web page

Alexander Muratov
Kinetic orientation of cortical microtubules in plant cells

Interests: Biophysics (theory)

Education: Moscow State University, Physics Department, Moscow, Russia
(2009 with honors)

Cortical microtubules in plants are rigid rod-like biopolymers attached by their ends to the cell wall. Microtubules organize in a two dimensional structure forming part of the cytoskeleton. Each individual microtubule is a highly dynamic self-assembled rod, which is permanently growing or shrinking. A key property which allows for such dynamic behavior of microtubules is the dynamic instability. Periods of constant growth from one end are interrupted by rapid depolymerization, which in turn, changes to constant growth.

Numerical model of collision induced self-organization of cortical microtubules (V. A. Baulin, C. M. Marques, F. Thalmann, “Collision induced spatial organization of microtubules”, Biophysical Chemistry, 128 (2007), 231–244) is applied to study the problem of spatial reorientation of cortical microtubules in response to gravity.

Beibei Huang
Self-assembly of charged polymers and peptides and their interaction with phospholipid membranes

Interests: Computational physics, applied mathematics (theory)

Education: Jinan University, Guangzhou, Computer Science and Technology, Jinan, China
(Doctor)

The aim of this project is to include electrostatics into the mean field models of interactions of lipid membranes with self-assembled nano-objects including functional biomimetic polymers, peptides, polymeric micelles and polymer therapeutic complexes/conjugates in order to enable the intelligent design of new materials with improved bilayer modifying properties.

This study may provide the molecular basis for the cytotoxicity of nano-objects and indicate the ways to reduce it. Combination of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory with the Single Chain Mean Field theory can test the inferred mechanisms for the interaction of charged nano-objects with phospholipid bilayers allowing to get insight into membrane association mechanisms.

Yachong Guo (master student)
Association of polymers and small solute molecules with phospholipid membranes

Interests: Mathematics and Physics (theory)

Education: College of Mathematics and Physics in Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China
(2011 with honors)

In many cases the properties of cell membranes are modified through biopolymers and small solute molecules such as anesthetics or neurotransmitters. They can associate to membranes and significantly alter their structure, either thermodynamic state or induce reorganization in form of pores. The project aims to describe the fundamental controls of these processes that trigger such membrane modification or structural reorganization using the Single Chain Mean Field (SCMF) theory.

Associated members

Marco Werner (PhD advisor Prof. Jens-Uwe Sommer)
Interaction of flexible polymers with phospholipid membranes

Interests: Polymer physics (theory), Monte Carlo simulations

Education: Dresden University, Dresden, Germany

MC simulation of interactions of flexible polymers with phospholipid bilayers, influence of macromolecules on shape and fluctuations of membranes depending on their level of hydrophobicity.

Faheem Padia (PhD advisor Prof. Jian Lu)
Neutron scattering from micelles

Interests: Neutron scattering

Education: University of Bath, Bath, UK

Theenhancement of aqueous solubility of drugs by the use of nanoparticles and micelles. Neutron scattering technique is used to determine the structure and shape of drug delivery vectors. The form factor obtained from neutron scattering can be directly compared with the predictions of the Single Chain Mean Field theory.

Mengmeng Wang (PhD advisor Prof. Nigel Slater)
Properties of self-assembled bilayers from mixtures of phospholipids

Interests: physic-chemistry of lipids

Education: Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

Investigation of the structure of phospholipid bilayers assembled from mixtures of lipids. Control of structural changes of bilayer properties for biomedical applications.

Recent Publications

Degradation versus self-assembly of block copolymer micelles
A. Muratov and V. A. Baulin
Langmuir, 1, (2012) [PDF]

Biomolecule Surface Patterning May Enhance Membrane Association
S. Pogodin, N. K. H. Slater and V. A. Baulin
ACS Nano, 1, (2012) [PDF]

Differential attraction and repulsion of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa on
molecularly smooth titanium films
E. Ivanova, V. Khanh Truong , H. Webb , V.A. Baulin, J. Wang , N. Mohammodi, F. Wang, C. Fluke, R. Crawford,
Scientific Reports, 1, 165 (2011) (Nature Publishing group) [PDF]

Coupled concentration polarization and electroosmotic circulation near micro/nanointerfaces: Taylor–Aris model of hydrodynamic dispersion and limits of its applicability
A. Yaroshchuk, E. Zholkovskiy, S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin,
Langmuir, 27(18), 11710-11721 (2011) [PDF]

Equilibrium insertion of nanoscale objects into phospholipid bilayers
S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin,
Current Nanoscience, 7 (5), 721-726 (2011) [PDF] [arxiv]

Accurate critical micelle concentrations from a single chain mean field theory
A. Gezae Daful, V.A. Baulin, J. Bonet i Avalos and A.D. Mackie,
J. Phys. Chem. B, 115, 3434–3443 (2011) [PDF]

Surface patterning of carbon nanotubes can enhance their penetration through a phospholipid bilayer
S. Pogodin, N.K.H. Slater and V.A. Baulin,
ACS Nano, 5 (2), 1141–1146 (2011) [PDF]

Aggregation of amphiphilic polymers in the presence of adhesive small colloidal particles
V.A. Baulin, A. Johner and J. Bonet Avalos,
J. Chem. Phys., 133, 174905 (2010) [PDF] [arxiv]

Can a carbon nanotube pierce through a phospholipid bilayer?
S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin,
ACS Nano, 4 (9), 5293–5300 (2010) [PDF] [arxiv]

Coarse-grained models of phospholipid membranes within the single chain mean field theory
S. Pogodin and V.A. Baulin,
Soft Matter, 6, 2216 - 2226 (2010) [PDF] [arxiv]

Projects

Interaction of membranes with nano-objects
Current project

Conference

Workshop on biomaterials and their interactions with biological and model membranes 2011

Workshop on biomaterials and biomembranes

Vladimir Baulin

Soft matter, Polymer physics, Biophysics

Bio