Flexoelectricity (IMAGE)
Caption
Schematic of an active cell membrane. In a typical active biological process, active proteins (shown in a variety of colors) in a cell membrane (shown in blue) interact with various biological components, such as the ATP molecules (shown in white and red). These interactions of active proteins generate active noise (fluctuation) force within a cell membrane, mechanically affecting the out-of-plane displacement of a cell membrane. Due to the flexoelectric coupling of a cell membrane, changes in out-of-plane displacement induce changes in the transmembrane voltage of a cell membrane,
resulting in energy harvesting, active transport of ions, and the generation of electric current across the cell membrane.
Credit
Pratik Khandagale, Liping Liu, and Pradeep Sharma
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License
Original content