Related papers: Mechanical Characterization of Amyloid Fibrils Usi…
Many human diseases are associated with protein aggregation and fibrillation. We present experiments on in vitro glucagon fibrillation using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, providing real-time measurements of…
Protein oligomers have been implicated as toxic agents in a wide range of amyloid-related diseases. Yet it has remained unsolved whether the oligomers are a necessary step in the formation of amyloid fibrils, or just a dangerous by-product.…
Many different proteins self-aggregate into insoluble fibrils growing apically by reversible addition of elementary building blocks. But beyond this common principle, the modalities of fibril formation are very disparate, with various…
Using lattice models we explore the factors that determine the tendencies of polypeptide chains to aggregate by exhaustively sampling the sequence and conformational space. The morphologies of the fibril-like structures and the time scales…
Contact unit size reduction is a widely studied mechanism as a means to improve adhesion in natural fibrillar systems, such as those observed in beetles or geckos. However, these animals also display complex structural features in the way…
The presence of oligomeric aggregates, which is often observed during the process of amyloid formation, has recently attracted much attention since it has been associated with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's…
The supramolecular assembly of lipids into bilayer membranes is essential for cellular structure and function. However, the impact of lipid structural variations such as acyl chain length, degree of unsaturation, and headgroup type on…
The elastic property of membranes self-assembled from AB diblock and ABA triblock copolymers, as coarse-grained model of lipids and the bolalipids, are studied using the self-consistent field theory (SCFT). Specifically, solutions of the…
Myosin II isoforms with varying mechanochemistry and filament size interact with filamentous actin (F-actin) networks to generate contractile forces in cells. How their properties control force production in environments with varying…
In the presence of ATP, molecular motors generate active force dipoles that drive suspensions of protein filaments far from thermodynamic equilibrium, leading to exotic dynamics and pattern formation. Microscopic modelling can help to…
The hygro-thermo-expansive response of fibrous networks involves deformation phenomena at multiple length scales. The moisture or temperature induced expansion of individual fibres is transmitted in the network through the inter-fibre…
We develop a theory of aggregation using statistical mechanical methods. An example of a complicated aggregation system with several levels of structures is peptide/protein self-assembly. The problem of protein aggregation is important for…
Calculations of elastic and mechanical characteristics of non-crystalline solids are challenging due to high computation cost of $ab$ $initio$ methods and low accuracy of empirical potentials. We propose a computational technique towards…
Protein folding, peptide aggregation and crystallization, as well as adsorption of molecules on soft or solid substrates have an essential feature in common: In all these processes, structure formation is guided by a collective, cooperative…
Amorphous solids increase their stress as a function of an applied strain until a mechanical yield point whereupon the stress cannot increase anymore, afterwards exhibiting a steady state with a constant mean stress. In stress controlled…
Using exhaustive Monte Carlo simulations we study the kinetics and mechanism of fibril formation using lattice models as a function of temperature and the number of chains. While these models are, at best, caricatures of peptides, we show…
Using lattice models we explore the factors that determine the tendencies of polypeptide chains to aggregate by exhaustively sampling the sequence and conformational space. The morphologies of the fibril-like structures and the time scales…
The mechanical properties of polymer gels based on cytoskeleton proteins (e.g. actin) have been studied extensively due to their significant role in biological cell motility and in maintaining the cell's structural integrity. Microrheology…
A variety of neurodegenerative diseases are associated with the formation of amyloid plaques. Our incomplete understanding of this process underscores the need to decipher the principles governing protein aggregation. Most experimental and…
The study of motor protein dynamics within cytoskeletal networks is of high interest to physicists and biologists to understand how the dynamics and properties of individual motors lead to cooperative effects and control of overall network…