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Many native structures of proteins accomodate complex topological motifs such as knots, lassos, and other geometrical entanglements. How proteins can fold quickly even in the presence of such topological obstacles is a debated question in…
Solutions of semiflexible polymers confined by repulsive planar walls are studied by density functional theory and Molecular Dynamics simulations, to clarify the competition between the chain alignment favored by the wall and the depletion…
The shear-jamming of dense suspensions can be strongly affected by molecular-scale interactions between particles, e.g. by chemically controlling their propensity for hydrogen bonding. However, hydrogen bonding not only enhances…
We study the swelling of a flexible linear chain composed of active particles by analytical theory and computer simulation. Three different situations are considered: a free chain, a chain confined to an external harmonic trap, and a chain…
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…
This study reveals the influence of the surface energy and solid/liquid boundary condition on the breakup mechanism of dewetting ultra-thin polymer films. Using silane self-assembled monolayers, SiO$_2$ substrates are rendered hydrophobic…
Water plays a fundamental role in protein stability. However, the effect of the properties of water on the behaviour of proteins is only partially understood. Several theories have been proposed to give insight into the mechanisms of cold…
Strategies based on the active targeting of tumor cells are emerging as smart and efficient nanomedical procedures. Folic acid (FA) is a vitamin and a well-established tumor targeting agent because of its strong affinity for the folate…
We consider a model of an extensible semiflexible filament moving in two dimensions on a motility assay of motor proteins represented explicitly as active harmonic linkers. Their heads bind stochastically to polymer segments within a…
Interfacial interactions significantly alter the fundamental properties of water confined in mesoporous structures, with crucial implications for geological, physicochemical, and biological processes. Herein, we focused on the effect of…
We scrutinize the effect of polyvalent ions on polymer-DNA interactions. We extend a recently developed test charge theory to the case of a stiff polymer interacting with a DNA molecule in an electrolyte mixture. The theory accounts for…
We suggest a theoretical description of the force-induced translocation dynamics of a polymer chain through a nanopore. Our consideration is based on the tensile (Pincus) blob picture of a pulled chain and the notion of propagating front of…
The hydrophobic effect is the dominant force which drives a protein towards its native state, but its physics has not been thoroughly understood yet. We introduce an exactly solvable model of the solvation of non-polar molecules in water,…
An extension of the Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij model of hard sphere colloids and non-adsorbing polymers, that takes polymer non-ideality into account through a repulsive stepfunction pair potential between polymers, is studied with grand canonical…
Folding kinetics of a lattice model of protein is studied. It uses the Random Energy Model for the intrachain couplings and a temperature dependent free energy of solvation derived from a realistic hydration model of apolar solutes. The…
Chain-like macromolecules in solution, whether biological or synthetic, transform from an extended conformation to a compact one when temperature or other system parameters change. This collapse transition is relevant in various phenomena,…
We study the behavior of single linear polyelectrolytes condensed by trivalent salt under the action of electric fields through computer simulations. The chain is unfolded when the strength of the electric field is stronger than a critical…
Most of the theoretical models describing the translocation of a polymer chain through a nanopore use the hypothesis that the polymer is always relaxed during the complete process. In other words, models generally assume that the…
Polymer additives [like polyethylene oxide (PEO)] are widely used for smooth electrode deposition in aqueous zinc and a number of other battery systems currently investigated for energy storage applications. However, the precise mechanism…
Titanium alloys can suffer from halide-associated stress corrosion cracking at elevated temperatures e.g., in jet engines, where chlorides and Ti-oxide promote the cracking of water vapour in the gas stream, depositing embrittling species…