The physics of plasma membrane photostimulation

Abstract

Cell membrane perturbation is a common way to stimulate cells by using external actuators. Recently, nanotechnology has added a number of new strategies for doing this, enlarging the scope and the range of mechanisms involved. Here, we describe a number of possible perturbation actions that are driven by light, and we try to capture the underlying phenomena. The discussion is based on the simple equivalent circuit model for the cell membrane.