Sylvio May

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Physics, Friedrich-Schiller University , Jena, Germany (1996)
Thesis: Elastic properties of mixed and charged amphiphilic membranes
Diploma, Physics, Friedrich-Schiller University , (1992)

Address: Department of Physics, North Dakota State University, Fargo ND, 58105-5566, USA
Office: South Engineering 220A
Tel: (701) 231-7048 or 231-8974
Fax: (701) 231-7088
email: sylvio (dot) may (at) ndsu (dot) edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS

 Domain formation in mixed lipid membranes
Interactions of biopolymers with lipid membranes
Electrostatics, Poisson-Boltzmann theory
Membrane elasticity

My research is currently funded through:

  1. NIH R15 GM077184, "Trans-monolayer coupling of membrane domains",
    PI Sylvio May, Co-PI Anne Hinderliter
  2. NSF DMR-0605883 , "Electrostatics of Soft Biomolecular Assemblies",
    PI Sylvio May

TEACHING
2008 Spring PHYS 212 College Physics II syllabus
2007 Fall PHYS 755 Classical Mechanics syllabus
2007 Spring PHYS 212 College Physics II syllabus
2006 Fall PHYS 462 Heat and Thermodynamics syllabus
2006 Spring PSCI 796 Biomembranes
2006 Spring PHYS 212 College Physics II syllabus
2005 Fall PHYS 752 Mathematical Methods in Physics syllabus
 
Useful teaching demos: Phet || falstad || myphysicslab || micromagnet || lightandcolor || Berkeley || fendt  

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
50. Demmelash H. Mengistu and Sylvio May, "Debye-Hückel theory of mixed charged-zwitterionic lipid layers", Eur. Phys. J. E, accepted (2008)

49. Assaf Zemel, Avinoam Ben-Shaul, and Sylvio May, "Effect of Amphipathic Peptides on the Spontaneous Curvature and Bending Rigidity of Lipid Membranes", J. Phys. Chem. B, accepted (2008)

48. Sylvio May, Ales Iglic, Jurij Rescic, Stefano Maset and Klemen Bohinc, "Bridging like-charged macroions through long divalent rod-like ions", J. Phys. Chem. B, 112, 1685-1692 (2008)

47. Andrew Haugen and Sylvio May, "The influence of zwitterionic lipids on the electrostatic adsorption of macroions onto mixed lipid membranes", J. Chem. Phys. 127, 215104 (2007)

46. Alexander J. Wagner, Stephan Loew, and Sylvio May, "Influence of Monolayer-Monolayer Coupling on the Phase Behavior of a Fluid Lipid Bilayer", Biophys. J. 93, 4268-4277 (2007)

45. Alexander J. Wagner and Sylvio May, "Electrostatic interactions across a charged lipid bilayer", Eur. Biophys. J., 36 (4-5): 293-303, (2007)

44. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Molecular Packing in Cylindrical Micelles", Chapter 2 in: Giant Micelles: Properties and Applications. R. Zana and E. Kaler editors. CRC Press, Boca Raton, p.41-80, (2007)

43. Miha Fosnaric, Ales Igic and Sylvio May, "Influence of rigid inclusions on the bending elasticity of a lipid membrane", Phys. Rev. E, 74 051503 (2006)

42. Klemen Bohinc, Veronica Kralj-Iglic, Tomas Slivnik, Sylvio May and Ales Iglic, "Spatial distribution of divalent rod-like ions in contact with a charged surface", Electrotechnical Review 73 (2-3) pp. 137-142 (2006)

41. Anne Hinderliter and Sylvio May, "Cooperative adsorption of proteins onto lipid membranes", J.Phys. Cond. Matter, 18, S1257-S1270 (2006)

40. Emmanuel C. Mbamala, Alfred Fahr and Sylvio May, "An electrostatic model for mixed cationic-zwitterionic lipid bilayers", Langmuir, 22 (11), 5129 -5136 (2006)

39. Maria Maddalena Sperotto, Sylvio May and Artur Baumgaertner, "Modeling of Proteins in Membranes", Chem. Phys. Lipids, 141, 2-29 (2006)

38. Klemen Bohinc, Darko Lombardo, Veronika Kralj-Iglic, Miha Fosnaric, Sylvio May, Franjo Pernus, Henry Hagerstrand and Ales Igic, "Shape variation of bilayer membrane daughter vesicles induced by anisotropic membrane inclusions", Cell. Mol. Biol. Lett., 11, 90-101 (2006)

37. Veronica Kralj-Iglic, Blaz Babnik, Dorit R. Gauger, Sylvio May and Ales Iglic, "Quadrupolar ordering of phospholipid molecules in narrow necks of phospholipid vesicles", J. Stat. Phys., 125 (3), pp. 723-748 (2006)

36. Miha Fosnaric, Klemen Bohinc, Dorit R. Gauger, Veronika Kralj-Iglic, Ales Igic and Sylvio May, "The influence of anisotropic membrane inclusions on curvature elastic properties of lipid membranes", J. Chem. Inf. Model., 45 (6), 1652 -1661 (2005)

35. Sylvio May, "Stability of macroion-decorated lipid membranes" , Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 17, R833-R850 (2005)

34. Alfred Fahr, Peter van Hoogevest, Sylvio May, Nill Bergstrand and Mathew Louis Steven Leigh, "Transfer of lipophilic drugs between liposomal membranes and biological interfaces: Consequences for drug delivery", Eur. J. Pharm. Sci., 26 (3-4), 251-65 (2005)

33. Klemen Bohinc, Ales Iglic and Sylvio May, "Self-assembly of linear aggregates on curved membranes", Europhys. Lett., 71 (1), 145-151 (2005)

32. Assaf Zemel, Avinoam Ben-Shaul and Sylvio May, "Perturbation of a lipid membrane by amphipathic peptides and its role in pore formation", Eur. Biophys. J., 34: 230-243 (2005)

31. Emmanuel C. Mbamala, Avinoam Ben-Shaul, and Sylvio May, "Domain Formation Induced by the Adsorption of Charged Proteins on Mixed Lipid Membranes", Biophys. J., 88: 1702-1714 (2005)

30. Klemen Bohinc, Ales Iglic and Sylvio May, "Interaction between Macroions Mediated by Divalent Rod-like Ions", Europhys. Lett., 68 (4), 494-500 (2004)

29. Sylvio May, Yoni Kozlovsky, Avinoam Ben-Shaul and Misha Kozlov, "Tilt modulus of a lipid monolayer",, Eur. Phys. J. E, 14, 299-308 (2004)

28. Cristina Luminita Baciu and Sylvio May, "Stability of charged, mixed lipid bilayers: Effects of electrostatic coupling between the monolayers", J.Phys. Cond. Matter, 16 S2455-S2460 (2004)

27. Assaf Zemel, Avinoam Ben-Shaul and Sylvio May, "Membrane Perturbation Induced by Interfacially Adsorbed Peptides", Biophys. J., 86, 3607-3619 (2004)

26. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Modeling of cationic lipid-DNA complexes", Current Medicinal Chemistry, 11, 1241-1253 (2004)

25. Miha Fosnaric, Veronika Kralj-Iglic, Klemen Bohinc, Ales Igic and Sylvio May, "Stabilization of Pores in Lipid Bilayers by Anisotropic Inclusions", J. Phys. Chem. B, 107(45), 12519-12526 (2003)

24. Klemen Bohinc, Veronika Kralj-Iglic and Sylvio May, "Interaction between two cylindrical inclusions in a symmetric lipid bilayer", J. Chem. Phys., 119(14), 7435-7444 (2003)

23. Daniel Harries, Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Curvature and charge modulations in lamellar DNA-lipid complexes", J. Phys. Chem.B, 107(15), 3624-3630 (2003)

22. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Membrane-Macromolecule Interactions and their Structural Consequences", Chapter 10 in "Membrane Science and Technology, Vol. 7: Planar Lipid Bilayers (BLMs) and their Applications", edited by H.T.Tien and A.Ottova-Leitmannova, Elsevier, 2003, pages 315-346

21. Sylvio May, Daniel Harries and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Macroion-induced compositional instability of binary fluid membranes", Phys. Rev. Lett., 89, 268102 (2002)

20. Sylvio May, "Structure and energy of fusion stalks: The role of membrane edges", Biophys. J., 83, 2969-2980 (2002)

19. Sylvio May, "Membrane Perturbations Induced by Integral Proteins: Role of Conformational Restrictions of the Lipid Chains"
Langmuir 18(16), 6356-6364 (2002)

18. Daniel Harries, Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Adsorption of Charged Macromolecules on Mixed Fluid Membranes", Colloids and Interfaces A, 208, 41-50 (2002)

17. Amit Kessel, Nir Ben-Tal and Sylvio May, "Interactions of Cholesterol with Lipid Bilayers: The Preferred Configuration and Fluctuations", Biophys. J., 81, 643-658 (2001)

16. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Molecular Theory of the Sphere-to-Rod Transition and the Second CMC in Aqueous Micellar Solutions", J. Phys. Chem. B, 105, 630-640 (2001)

15. Sylvio May, "Theories on structural perturbations of lipid bilayers", Curr. Opin. Coll. Int. Sci., 5, 244-249 (2000)

14. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "A molecular model for lipid-mediated interaction between proteins in membranes", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 2, 4494-4502 (2000)

13. Sylvio May, Daniel Harries and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Lipid Demixing and Protein-Protein Interactions in the Adsorption of Charged Proteins on Mixed Membranes", Biophys. J., 79, 1747-1760 (2000)

12. Sylvio May, "A molecular model for the line tension of lipid membranes", Eur. Phys. J. E, 3, 37-44 (2000)

11. Sylvio May, "Inclusion induced bilayer deformations: The lipid tilt degree of freedom", Eur. Biophys. J., 29, 17-28 (2000)

10. Markus Deserno, Christian Holm and Sylvio May, "Fraction of condensed counterions around a charged rod: Comparison of Poisson-Boltzmann theory and computer simulations", Macromolecules, 33, 199-205 (2000)

9. Sylvio May, Daniel Harries and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "The Phase Behavior of Cationic Lipid-DNA Complexes", Biophys. J., 78, 1681-1697 (2000)

8. K. Wagner, D. Harries, S. May, V. Kahl, J.O Rädler and A. Ben-Shaul, "Direct evidence for counterion Release upon Cationic Lipid-DNA Condensation", Langmuir, 16, 303-306 (2000)

7. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Molecular Theory of Lipid-Protein Interaction and the L-HII transition", Biophys. J., 76, 751-767 (1999)

6. Daniel Harries, Sylvio May, William Gelbart and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Structure, Stability and Thermodynamics of Lamellar DNA-Lipid Complexes", Biophys. J., 75, 159-173 (1998)

5. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "DNA-Lipid Complexes: Stability of Honeycomb-like and Spaghetti-like Structures" Biophys. J. 73, 2427-2440 (1997),

4. Sylvio May , Yardena Bohbot and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Molecular Theory of Bending Elasticity and Branching of Cylindrical Micelles", J. Phys. Chem. B, 101, 8648-8657 (1997)

3. Sylvio May, "Curvature elasticity and thermodynamic stability of electrically charged membranes", J. Chem. Phys. 105, 8314 (1996)

2. Sylvio May and Avinoam Ben-Shaul, "Spontaneous curvature and thermodynamic stability of mixed amphiphilic layers", J. Chem. Phys. 103, 3839 (1995)

1. Sylvio May, "Position of the neutral surface in charged monolayers", Progr. Colloid. Polym. Sci. 97, 9-11 (1994)

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