Related papers: Direction dependent mechanical unfolding and Green…
The essential features of the in vitro refolding of myoglobin are expressed in a solvable physical model. Alpha helices are taken as the fundamental collective coordinates of the system, while the refolding is assumed to be mainly driven by…
We propose a simple approach, based on the minimization of the total (entropic plus unfolding) energy of a two-state system, describing the stretch-induced unfolding of macromolecules (proteins, silks, nanopolymers, DNA/RNA). The model is…
We study the thermodynamics of an exactly solvable model of a self-interacting partially directed self-avoiding walk (DSAW) in two dimensions, when a force is applied on one end of the chain. The critical force for the unfolding is…
To mimic the mechanical response of passive biological cilia in complex fluids, we study the bending dynamics of an anchored elastic fiber submitted to a dilute granular suspension under shear. We show that the bending fluctuations of the…
We develop a Machine Learning Inversion method for analyzing scattering functions of mechanically driven polymers and extracting the corresponding feature parameters, which include energy parameters and conformation variables. The polymer…
We discuss implications of a recent experimental breakthrough which uses a fluorescence-doped flexible semiconducting polymer to construct a single-molecule sensor which can detect ultra-weak forces in the molecular environment, with a grey…
We study the conformation and dynamics of a single polymer chain that is pulled by a constant force applied at its one end with the other end free. Such a situation is relevant to the growing technology of manipulating individual…
We present a theoretical analysis of a simple model of the depinning of an anchored semiflexible polymer from a fixed planar substrate in (1+1) dimensions. We consider a polymer with a discrete sequence of pinning sites along its contour.…
We consider the dynamics of a rigid filament in a motor protein assay under external loading. The motor proteins are modeled as active harmonic linkers with tail ends immobilized on a substrate. Their heads attach to the filament…
Extensive Monte Carlo folding simulations for four proteins of various structural classes are carried out, using a single atomistic potential. In all cases, collapse occurs at a very early stage, and proteins fold into their native-like…
We propose a protein model based on a hierarchy of constraints that force the protein to follow certain pathways when changing conformation. The model exhibits a first order phase transition, cooperativity and is exactly solvable. It also…
The dynamics of folding of proteins is studied by means of a phenomenological master equation. The energy distribution is taken as a truncated exponential for the misfolded states plus a native state sitting below the continuum. The…
We have studied the mobility of the folding catalyst, protein disulphide-isomerase (PDI), by molecular dynamics and by a rapid approach based on flexibility. We analysed our simulations using measures of backbone movement, relative…
Identification and characterization of large protein complexes is a mainstay of biochemical toolboxes. Utilization of cross-linking chemicals can facilitate the capture and identification of transient or weak interactions of a transient…
Fibrinogen is a protein found in blood that forms Fibrin polymer network to build a clot during wound healing process when there is a cut in the blood vessel. The fibrin fiber is highly stretchable and shows a complex mechanical properties.…
Here we report a random lasing based sensor which shows pH sensitivity exceeding by 2-orders of magnitude that of a conventional fluorescence sensor. We explain the sensing mechanism as related to gain modifications and lasing threshold…
A DNA-protein complex modelled by a semiflexible chain and an attractive spherical core is studied in the situation when an external stretching force is acting on one end monomer of the chain while the other end monomer is kept fixed in…
Folded protein hydrogels are prime candidates as tuneable biomaterials but it is unclear to what extent their mechanical properties have mesoscopic, as opposed to molecular origins. To address this, we probe hydrogels of the muscle-derived…
We study a physical system which, while devoid of the complexity one usually associates with proteins, nevertheless displays a remarkable array of protein-like properties. The constructive hypothesis that this striking resemblance is not…
Single-molecule mechanical manipulation has enabled the quantitative understanding of the kinetics of bond ruptures as well as protein unfolding mechanism. Single-molecule experiments with theoretical models have allowed one to gain insight…