Related papers: Frustration in Biomolecules
Molecules provide the ultimate language in terms of which physiology and pathology must be understood. Myriads of proteins participate in elaborate networks of interactions and perform chemical activities coordinating the life of cells. To…
Natural protein molecules are exceptional polymers. Encoded in apparently random strings of amino-acids, these objects perform clear physical tasks that are rare to find by simple chance. Accurate folding, specific binding, powerful…
We solve a model that takes into account entropic barriers, frustration, and the organization of a protein-like molecule. For a chain of size $M$, there is an effective folding transition to an ordered structure. Without frustration, this…
The controlled dissipation of chemical potentials is the fundamental way cells make a living. Enzyme-mediated catalysis allows the various transformations to proceed at biologically relevant rates with remarkable precision and efficiency.…
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…
Besides being a fascinating class of new materials, magnetic molecules provide the opportunity to study concepts of condensed matter physics in zero dimensions. This contribution will exemplify the impact of molecular magnetism on concepts…
We present a detailed heuristic method to quantify the degree of local energetic frustration manifested by protein molecules. Current applications are realized in computational experiments where a protein structure is visualized…
Geometric frustration appears in a broad range of systems, generally emerging as disordered ground configurations, thereby impeding understanding of the phenomenon's underlying mechanics. We report on a continuum system featuring locally…
The notion of energy landscapes provides conceptual tools for understanding the complexities of protein folding and function. Energy Landscape Theory indicates that it is much easier to find sequences that satisfy the "Principle of Minimal…
The understanding, and even the description of protein folding is impeded by the complexity of the process. Much of this complexity can be described and understood by taking a statistical approach to the energetics of protein conformation,…
The importance of molecular-scale forces in sculpting biological form and function has been acknowledged for more than a century. Accounting for forces in biology is a problem that lies at the intersection of soft condensed matter physics,…
Frustration, or the competition between interacting components of a network, is often responsible for the complexity of many body systems, from social and neural networks to protein folding and magnetism. In quantum magnetic systems,…
This perspective will overview an emerging paradigm for self-organized soft materials, {\it geometrically-frustrated assemblies}, where interactions between self-assembling elements (e.g. particles, macromolecules, proteins) favor local…
Folding and aggregation of proteins, the interaction between proteins and membranes, as well as the adsorption of organic soft matter to inorganic solid substrates belong to the most interesting challenges in understanding structure and…
Controlling the self-assembly of supramolecular structures is vital for living cells, and a central challenge for engineering at the nano- and microscales. Nevertheless, even particles without optimized shapes can robustly form well-defined…
To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of chemical reactions between molecules. Here, we describe how…
Geometric frustration and the ice rule are two concepts that are intimately connected and widespread across condensed matter. The first refers to the inability of a system to satisfy competing interactions in the presence of spatial…
The ability to control the crystallization behaviour (including its absence) of particles, be they biomolecules such as globular proteins, inorganic colloids, nanoparticles, or metal atoms in an alloy, is of both fundamental and…
Geometric frustration of interacting spin systems is the driving force of a variety of fascinating phenomena in low-dimensional magnetism. In this contribution I will review recent results on frustration-induced effects in magnetic…
The existence of definite orders in frustrated quantum systems is related rigorously to the occurrence of fully factorized ground states below a threshold value of the frustration. Ground-state separability thus provides a natural measure…