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Periodic arrays of micro- or nano-pillars constitute solid state matrices with excellent properties for DNA size separation. Nanofabrication technologies offer many solutions to tailor the geometry of obstacle arrays, yet most studies have…
DNA-coated colloids are a popular model system for self-assembly through tunable interactions. The DNA-encoded linkages between particles theoretically allow for very high specificity, but generally no directionality or long-range…
Molecules with versatile functionalities and well-defined structures, can serve as building blocks for extreme nanoscale devices. This requires their precise integration into functional heterojunctions, most commonly in the form of…
The translocation of a macromolecule through a nanometer-sized pore is an interesting process with important applications in the development of biosensors for single--molecule analysis and in drug delivery and gene therapy. We have carried…
Limited bonding valence, usually accompanied by well-defined directional interactions and selective bonding mechanisms, is nowadays considered among the key ingredients to create complex structures with tailored properties: even though…
The two strands of a DNA molecule with a repetitive sequence can pair into many different basepairing patterns. For perfectly periodic sequences, early bulk experiments of Poerschke indicate the existence of a sliding process, permitting…
DNA has the potential to realize a controllable liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) system, because the design of its base sequences results in programmable interactions. Here, we have developed a novel DNA-based LLPS system which enables…
Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on pure liquid water, aqueous solutions of sodium chloride, and polymer solutions exposed to a strong external electric field with the goal to gain molecular insight into the structural…
Recent experiments demonstrated that knots in single DNA strands can be formed by hydrodynamic compression in a nanochannel. In this letter, we further elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms by carrying out a compression experiment…
The interaction between nano- or micro-sized particles and cell membranes is of crucial importance in many biological and biomedical applications such as drug and gene delivery to cells and tissues. During their cellular uptake, the…
The transport of macromolecules, such as DNA, through the cytoskeleton is critical to wide-ranging cellular processes from cytoplasmic streaming to transcription. The rigidity and steric hindrances imparted by the network of filaments…
Field induced assembly of reconfigurable structures with complex hierarchical configurations has recently become an area of intense research with the promise for exciting applications in programmable self-assembly and nano/microstructure…
Fluid mixtures, such as the cellular cytoplasm and synthetic DNA nanostars, can spontaneously compartmentalize into many coexisting phases through liquid-liquid phase separation. Despite the diversity of fluid structures that emerge from…
Advances in understanding chemical and physical driving forces in self-assembly allow the fabrication of unique nanoarchitectures with subwavelength building blocks as the basis for plasmonic and metamaterial devices. Chemical crosslinking…
Patchy particles have received great attention due to their ability to develop directional and selective interactions and serve as building units for the self-assembly of innovative colloidal molecules and crystalline structures. Although…
We investigate the effective interactions between two nanoparticles (or colloids) immersed in a solvent exhibiting two-phase separation. Using a non-local density functional theory, we determine the dependence of the effective potential on…
We use a nanofluidic system to investigate the emergence of thermally driven collective phenomena along a single polymer chain. In our approach, a single DNA molecule is confined in a nanofluidic slit etched with arrays of embedded…
We report a detailed study of neuromorphic switching behaviour in inherently complex percolating networks of self-assembled metal nanoparticles. We show that variation of the strength and duration of the electric field applied to this…
The control over DNA elongation in nanofluidic devices holds great potential for large-scale genomic analysis. So far, the manipulation of DNA in nanochannels has been mostly carried out with electrophoresis and seldom with hydrodynamics,…
Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) integrated within thermoresponsive polymeric microgels provide a versatile platform for the realization of stimuli-responsive optical materials, where the microgel volume phase transition enables dynamic…