Biomolecules
We discuss a model of protein conformations where the conformations are combinations of short fragments from some small set. For these fragments we consider a distribution of frequencies of occurrence of pairs (sequence of amino acids,…
The flexibility of short DNA fragments is studied by a Hamiltonian model which treats the inter-strand and intra-strand forces at the level of the base pair. The elastic response of a set of homogeneous helices to externally applied forces…
In this contribution I critically revise the alchemical reversible approach in the context of the statistical mechanics theory of non covalent bonding in drug receptor systems. I show that most of the pitfalls and entanglements for the…
The model for cAMP-dependent synaptic plasticity relates the characterization of a noradrenaline-stimulated adenylyl cyclase with DNA unzipping. Specific proteins condition cAMP insertion in specific sites of the DNA structure to direct…
Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs) are receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) that regulate proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and vascular permeability of endothelial cells. VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 bind vascular endothelial…
Because of the potential link between -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting and response of a pseudoknot (PK) RNA to force, a number of single molecule pulling experiments have been performed on PKs to decipher the mechanism of programmed…
Bz-423 is a promising new drug for treatment of autoimmune diseases. This small molecule binds to subunit OSCP of the mitochondrial enzyme FoF1-ATP synthase and modulates its catalytic activities. We investigate the binding of Bz-423 to…
Wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS) is emerging as a powerful tool for increasing the resolution of solution structure measurements of biomolecules. Compared to its better known complement, small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), WAXS targets…
Though the problem of sequence-reversed protein folding is largely unexplored, one might speculate that reversed native protein sequences should be significantly more foldable than purely random heteropolymer sequences. In this article, we…
Questions in computational molecular biology generate various discrete optimization problems, such as DNA sequence alignment and RNA secondary structure prediction. However, the optimal solutions are fundamentally dependent on the…
The adhesion of cell membranes is mediated by the binding of membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins. In this article, we review recent results from simulations and theory that lead to novel insights on how the binding equilibrium…
This document attempts to clarify potential confusion regarding electrostatics calculations, specifically in the context of biomolecular structure and specifically as regards the units typically used to contour/visualize isopotential…
Sm proteins were discovered nearly 20 years ago as a group of small antigenic proteins ($\approx$ 90-120 residues). Since then, an extensive amount of biochemical and genetic data have illuminated the crucial roles of these proteins in…
Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) model is one of the most popular implicit solvent models in biophysical modeling and computation. The ability of providing accurate and reliable PB estimation of electrostatic solvation free energy, $\Delta…
Biophysical force spectroscopy tools - for example optical tweezers, magnetic tweezers, atomic force microscopy, - have been used to study elastic, mechanical, conformational and dynamic properties of single biological specimens from single…
Following the interest of L Messori and A Merlino 2016 Coordination Chemistry Reviews in the platinum ions coordination geometries in our PDB entries 4dd4 and 4dd6 we have extended our original analyses.
Hemoglobin (Hgb) forms tetramers (dimerized dimers), which enhance its globular stability and may also facilitate small gas molecule transport, as shown by recent all-atom Newtonian solvated simulations. Hydropathic bioinformatic scaling…
Scaling theory generates transferable (even universal) algebraic and geometrical relations between the amino acid sequences and the aggregation functions of the three titled radically different proteins. In addition to the two…
Despite considerable efforts, structural prediction of protein-peptide complexes is still a very challenging task, mainly due to two reasons: high flexibility of the peptides and transient character of their interactions with proteins.…
The protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are crucial for understanding the majority of cellular processes. PPIs play important role in gene transcription regulation, cellular signaling, molecular basis of immune response and more. Moreover,…