title: Vesicle Fusion Triggered by Optically Heated Gold Nanoparticles.
abstract: Membrane fusion can be accelerated by heating that causes membrane melting and expansion. We locally heated the membranes of two adjacent vesicles by laser irradiating gold nanoparticles, thus causing vesicle fusion with associated membrane and cargo mixing. The mixing time scales were consistent with diffusive mixing of the membrane dyes and the aqueous content. This method is useful for nanoscale reactions as demonstrated here by I-BAR protein-mediated membrane tubulation triggered by fusion.
authors.affiliation: †Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rørvig-Lund
authors.affiliation: †Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.|‡Lundbeck Foundation Center of Excellence for Biomembranes in Nanomedicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Azra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bahadori
authors.affiliation: †Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Semsey
authors.affiliation: †Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Poul Martin
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bendix
authors.affiliation: †Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.|‡Lundbeck Foundation Center of Excellence for Biomembranes in Nanomedicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lene B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Oddershede
keywords: GUV; I-BAR; fusion; nanoparticle; optical trap; vesicle