Free Energy Minimization for Vesicle Translocation Through a Narrow Pore

This chapter presents a mathematical formulation for the translocation process of a vesicle through a narrow pore. The effect of the deformation of the vesicle while passing through the pore causes a penalty in the free energy, while the existence of an external driving force assists. We formulate the free energy landscape of the vesicle in terms of bending and stretching energy and use Fokker-Plank formalism to calculate the first-passage translocation time. We also address various modifications that can be done to this approach to make it work for different systems.