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We introduce a coarse-grained model of DNA with bases modeled as rigid-body ellipsoids to capture their anisotropic stereochemistry. Interaction potentials are all physicochemical and generated from all-atom simulation/parameterization with…
A multiscale approach is used to simulate the translocation of DNA through a nanopore. Within this scheme, the interactions of the molecule with the surrounding fluid (solvent) are explicitly taken into account. By generating polymers of…
Experiments reveal that DNA solvation dynamics (SD) is characterized by multiple time scales ranging from a few ps to hundreds of ns and in some cases even up to microseconds. The last part of decay is slow and is characterized by a power…
We model the spatiotemporal dynamics of cellular protein concentrations near membranes composed of different lipids using a three-variable continuum model for membrane-bound protein, cytosolic protein, and the local composition of a binary…
We investigate the dynamics of DNA translocation through a nanopore driven by an external force using Langevin dynamics simulations in two dimensions (2D) to study how the translocation dynamics depend on the details of the DNA sequences.…
We review statistical-mechanical theories of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments on nucleic acids. First, models for describing polymer elasticity are introduced. We then review how these models are used to interpret…
Bending of DNA from a straight rod to a circular form in presence of any of the mono-, di-, tri- or tetravalent counterions has been simulated in strong Coulomb coupling environment employing a previously developed energy minimization…
DNA hybridization is a fundamental reaction with wide-ranging applications in biotechnology. The nearest-neighbor (NN) model provides the most reliable description of the energetics of duplex formation. Most DNA thermodynamics studies have…
The folding transition of biopolymers from the coil to compact structures has attracted wide research interest in the past and is well studied in polymer physics. Recent seminal works on DNA in confined devices have shown that these long…
The physics and morphology of biomolecular condensates formed through liquid-liquid phase separation underpin diverse biological processes, exemplified by the nested organization of nucleoli that facilitates ribosome biogenesis. Here, we…
Packing transitions in the lowest energy structures of Li clusters as a function of size have been identified via simulated annealing. For N>21, the large $p$ character of Li leads to unexpected ionic structures. At N~25, a packing pattern…
We studied how the inhomogeneity of a sequence affects the phase transition that takes place at DNA melting. Unlike previous works, which considered thermodynamic quantities averaged over many different inhomogeneous sequences, we focused…
Prokaryotes do not make use of a nucleus membrane to segregate their genetic material from the cytoplasm, so that their nucleoid is potentially free to explore the whole volume of the cell. Nonetheless, high resolution images of bacteria…
The electrostatic complexation between DOTAP-DOPC unilamellar liposomes and an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte (NaPA) has been investigated in a wide range of the liposome surface charge density. We systematically characterized the…
Ensuring the stability of the AuNP-gene complex until it reaches the target sites is a crucial factor for the success of gene therapy. Though different AuNP sizes and AuNP-to-DNA ratios are investigated for specific therapeutic needs, their…
A water-filled differentially heated rotating annulus with initially prepared stable vertical salinity profiles is studied in the laboratory. Based on two-dimensional horizontal particle image velocimetry (PIV) data, and infrared camera…
We study the mechanism underlying the attraction between nucleosomes, the fundamental packaging units of DNA inside the chromatin complex. We introduce a simple model of the nucleosome, the eight-tail colloid, consisting of a charged sphere…
We present a multiscale approach to the modeling of polymer dynamics in the presence of a fluid solvent. The approach combines Langevin Molecular Dynamics (MD) techniques with a mesoscopic Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) method for the solvent…
The twisting deformation of mechanically stretched DNA molecules is studied by a coarse grained Hamiltonian model incorporating the fundamental interactions that stabilize the double helix and accounting for the radial and angular base pair…
Several recent experiments suggest that sharply bent DNA has a surprisingly high bending flexibility, but the cause of this flexibility is poorly understood. Although excitation of flexible defects can explain these results, whether such…