EnCurv

EnCurv maintains specified membrane curvature in lipid membranes during molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to enable accurate modeling of curvature-dependent membrane phenomena.

Key Features:

• Preservation of Desired Curvature: Maintains any specified curvature in a designated sector of a lipid membrane bent along a single plane without introducing unphysical interactions.
• Unrestricted Lipid Dynamics: Allows lateral and transversal diffusion and distribution of lipids to proceed without artificial constraints.
• Scalability: Scales linearly with system size, enabling efficient large-scale simulations.
• Force Field Agnosticism: Operates independently of specific force fields, simulation parameters, and membrane compositions.

Scientific Applications:

• Vesicle formation: Facilitates simulation of curvature-dependent stages of vesicle budding and fission.
• Protein–membrane interactions: Enables study of how membrane curvature influences binding, insertion, and activity of membrane-associated proteins.
• Membrane mechanics: Supports investigation of the mechanical properties of cellular membranes as a function of imposed curvature.
• Cell biology and biophysics research: Provides a framework for modeling curvature-related phenomena relevant to cell biology and biophysics.

Methodology:

The current implementation is tailored for membranes curved in a single plane and can be generalized conceptually to more complex curvatures and membrane topologies.