Polystyrene Penetrates Lipid Vesicles

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Inner View

This video demonstrates a molecular dynamics simulation of a polystyrene nanoplastic particle penetrating a lipid vesicle. Two different viewpoints are included: Left: PS with both outer and inner leaflets visualized. Right: PS with only the inner leaflet visualized. PS is included in gray, inner leaflet in cyan, and outer leaflet in red.

Key things to note:

– PS penetrates quickly (video timescale is total of 1.2 microseconds)

– Inner leaflet remains relatively intact over the course of the video

This is part of work funded by the National Science Foundation as a part of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. https://susnano.wisc.edu/

This has been added as a virtual component of a poster presentation.