Related papers: Non-deterministic self-assembly of two tile types …
Allosteric interactions occur when binding at one part of a complex affects the interactions at another part. Allostery offers a high degree of control in multi-species processes, and these interactions play a crucial role in many…
A hallmark of living systems is the ability to employ a common set of versatile building blocks that can self-organize into a multitude of different structures, in a way that can be controlled with minimal cost. This capability can only be…
Site-occupancy disorder, defined as the non-periodic occupation of lattice sites in a crystal structure, is a ubiquitous phenomenon in solid-state physics and chemistry. Examples are mineral solid solutions, synthetic non-stoichiometric…
Self-assembly is traditionally described as the process through which an initially disordered system relaxes towards an equilibrium ordered phase only driven by local interactions between its building blocks. However, This definition is too…
Biological systems often involve the self-assembly of basic components into complex and function- ing structures. Artificial systems that mimic such processes can provide a well-controlled setting to explore the principles involved and also…
Assembly of protein complexes like virus shells, the centriole, the nuclear pore complex or the actin cytoskeleton is strongly determined by their spatial structure. Moreover it is becoming increasingly clear that the reversible nature of…
In this paper we address the characterization of the structure of condensed materials, periodic and non-periodic. Carrying out an extensive study of over 7000 different groundstate structures of a 2D lattice model of binary packing, we find…
Assembly theory predicts that a distinguishing signature of life is its ability to produce complex molecules in abundance, opening new possibilities for life detection. Experimental validation of this approach has so far relied on abiotic…
In living cells, proteins self-assemble into large functional structures based on specific interactions between molecularly complex patches. Due to this complexity, protein self-assembly results from a competition between a large number of…
Protein folding is a universal process, very fast and accurate, which works consistently (as it should be) in a wide range of physiological conditions. The present work is based on three premises, namely: ($i$) folding reaction is a process…
The emerging field of passive macro-scale tile-based self-assembly (TBSA) shows promise in enabling effective manufacturing processes by harnessing TBSA's intrinsic parallelism. However, current TBSA methodologies still do not fulfill their…
Equilibrium self-assembly and conventional materials processing techniques fall far short of mimicking dynamic self-actuating processes that are commonplace throughout biology. To bridge the gap between living and synthetic matter, we study…
Topological defects are fundamental to the collective dynamics of non-equilibrium systems and in active matter, mediating spontaneous flows, dynamic self-organization, and emergent pattern formation. Here, we reveal critical states in…
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…
The growth of multicomponent structures in simulations and experiments often results in kinetically trapped, nonequilibrium objects. In such cases we have no general theoretical framework for predicting the outcome of the growth process.…
The relationship between interactions, flexibility and disorder in proteins has been explored from many angles: folding upon binding, flexibility of the core relative to the periphery, entropy changes, etc. In this work, we provide…
Proteins can combine into functional elements in living cells or self-assemble into unwanted structures in a number of diseases. The resulting aggregates often display filamentous morphologies across a large range of protein shapes and…
We elucidate the molecular forces leading to assembly of two dimensional membrane-like structures composed of a one rod-length thick monolayer of aligned rods from an immiscible suspension of hard rods and depleting polymers. We perform…
Inspired by recent successes using single-stranded DNA tiles to produce complex structures, we develop a two-step coarse-graining approach that uses detailed thermodynamic calculations with oxDNA, a nucleotide-based model of DNA, to…
Spontaneous self-assembly in molecular systems is a fundamental route to both biological and engineered soft matter. Simple micellisation, emulsion formation, and polymer mixing principles are well understood. However, the principles behind…