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A computational framework for simulation of the delivery of substances into cells
Author(s) -
Campello Eduardo M. B.,
Zohdi Tarek I.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.741
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 2040-7947
pISSN - 2040-7939
DOI - 10.1002/cnm.2649
Subject(s) - computer science , scheme (mathematics) , mechanism (biology) , simple (philosophy) , particle (ecology) , particle system , dynamical systems theory , computational science , statistical physics , simulation , biological system , physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , epistemology , quantum mechanics , oceanography , biology , geology , operating system
SUMMARY In this paper, we propose a simple computational framework for the rapid simulation of the delivery of substances into cells. Our approach treats the substances and the cell membrane as a collection of particles forming a discrete dynamical system, which is described by Newtonian equations in a purely mechanistic way. Detailed aspects about the modeling of particle interactions are discussed and resolved. The main advantage of such an approach is that it can offer a good qualitative picture of the delivery mechanism without the need to resort to detailed descriptions of the complex intermolecular interactions that are observed at small scales of the cell membrane. A numerical time integration scheme is formulated for solution of the system dynamics, and examples of simulations are provided. Computational particle‐based models render reliable and fast simulation tools. We believe they can be very useful to help advance the design of delivery systems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.