Polymer brush-induced depletion interactions and clustering of membrane proteins

We investigate the effect of mobile polymer brushes on proteins embedded in biological membranes by employing both Asakura-Oosawa type theoretical model and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. The brush polymer-induced depletion attraction between changes non-monotonically with size brush. interaction, which is determined ratio protein to grafting distance polymers, increases linearly as long height shorter than size. When exceeds size, however, among slightly reduced. also explore possibility assembly a large cluster, can be related one many mechanisms underlying recent experimental observations integrin nanocluster formation signaling.