MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION OF VESICLE SELF-ORGANIZATION

Vesicles, which are droplets of a fluid encapsulated in a membrane, re present the basic structure of almost all life forms. The amphiphilic membrane that separates different domains acts as a tunable filter, se lectively allowing the passage of chemical substances. The formation o f these aggregates is subject of increasing interest, both experimenta l and theoretically, due to the fact that they can be used as drug car rier or even as artificial cells. In this paper, we report the first s uccessful computer simulation of vesicle spontaneous formation obtaine d by performing extensive Monte Carlo calculations in a microscopic la ttice model based on two-tailed amphiphilic chains surrounded by solve nt molecules. The dynamical process of aggregation is also shown and s ome features of this process are discussed.