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The intricate three-dimensional geometries of protein tertiary structures underlie protein function and emerge through a folding process from one-dimensional chains of amino acids. The exact spatial sequence and configuration of amino…
Understanding the complex self-assembly of biomacromolecules is a major outstanding question. Microtubules are one example of a biopolymer that possesses characteristics quite distinct from standard synthetic polymers that are derived from…
The properties of small clusters can differ dramatically from the bulk phases of the same constituents. In equilibrium, cluster assembly has been recently explored, whereas out of equilibrium, the physical principles of clustering remain…
The evaluated nuclide yields, fragment mass and charge distributions, and averaged total kinetic energy of fission fragments for the neutron-induced fission of 30 actinide nuclei are well described in the new model, which considers the…
Anisotropy at the level of the inter-particle interaction provides the particles with specific instructions for the self-assembly of target structures. The ability to synthesize non-spherical colloids, together with the possibility of…
In geometrically frustrated assemblies, equilibrium self-limitation manifests in the form of a minimum in the free energy per subunit at a finite, multi-subunit size which results from the competition between the elastic costs of…
The actin cytoskeleton is remarkably adaptable and multifunctional. It often organizes into nematic bundles such as contractile rings or stress fibers. However, how a uniform and isotropic actin gel self-organizes into dense nematic bundles…
Certain sequences of peptoid polymers (synthetic analogs of peptides) assemble into bilayer nanosheets via a nonequilibrium assembly pathway of adsorption, compression, and collapse at an air-water interface. As with other large-scale…
The cytoskeleton protein actin assembles into large bundles when supporting stresses in the cell, but grows into a fine branched network to induce cell motion. Such self-organization processes are studied in artificial networks of…
The formation of a viral capsid -- the highly-ordered protein shell that surrounds the genome of a virus -- is the canonical example of self-assembly. The capsids of many positive-sense RNA viruses spontaneously assemble from in vitro…
Network formation of associative semiflexible fibers and mixtures of fibers and colloidal particles is simulated for the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model of elastic contacts, and a phase diagram in terms of particle elasticity and…
Biological and robotic systems often operate in confined environments where material must be gathered without centralized control. Inspired by the effective collection strategies of aquatic worms (Lumbriculus variegatus and Tubifex…
Short peptides with antimicrobial activity have therapeutic potential for treating bacterial infections. Mechanisms of actions for antimicrobial peptides require binding the biological membrane of their target, which often represents a key…
With exquisite precision and reproducibility, cells orchestrate the cooperative action of thousands of nanometer-sized molecular motors to carry out mechanical tasks at much larger length scales, such as cell motility, division and…
The use of reduced models for investigating the self-assembly dynamics underlying protein shell formation in spherical viruses is described. The spontaneous self-assembly of these polyhedral, supramolecular structures, in which icosahedral…
The structures of fibre networks can vary greatly due to fibre interactions during formation. We have modified the steps of generating Mikado networks to create two new model classes by altering the spatial distribution and relative…
Formation of monodispersed colloidal particles is a complex process: nuclei, produced rapidly in a supersaturated solution, grow to nanosize primary particles, which then aggregate (coagulate) to form much larger final colloids. This paper…
Motivated by recent experimental findings in chemical synthesis of colloidal particles, we draw an analogy between self-assembly processes occurring in biological systems (e.g. protein folding) and a new exciting possibility in the field of…
The conformation space of a 20-residue antiparallel $\beta$-sheet peptide, sampled by molecular dynamics simulations, is mapped to a network. Conformations are nodes of the network, and the transitions between them are links. The…
We report canonical and grand-canonical lattice Monte Carlo simulations of the self-assembly of addressable structures comprising hundreds of distinct component types. The nucleation behaviour, in the form of free-energy barriers to…