Related papers: Packaging stiff polymers in small containers: A mo…
Dynamics of spreading of small droplets on surfaces has been studied by the molecular dynamics method. Simulations have been performed for mixtures of solvent and dimer, and solvent and tetramer droplets. For solvent particles and dimers,…
The self-assembly of polyhedral shells, each constructed from 60 trapezoidal particles, is simulated using molecular dynamics. The spatial organization of the component particles in this shell is similar to the capsomer proteins forming the…
Spherical confinement can act either stabilizing or destabilizing on the collapsed state of a semi-flexible polymer. General free-energy arguments suggest that the order of the unconstrained collapse transition is the distinguishing factor:…
If a semiflexible polymer confined to a narrow channel bends around by 180 degrees, the polymer is said to exhibit a hairpin. The equilibrium extension statistics of the confined polymer are well understood when hairpins are vanishingly…
Concentrated solutions of short blunt-ended DNA duplexes, down to 6 base pairs, are known to order into the nematic liquid crystal phase. This self-assembly is due to the stacking interactions between the duplex terminals that promotes…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to study a semidilute, unentangled polymer solution containing well dispersed, weakly attractive nanoparticles (NP) of size ($\sigma_N$) smaller than the polymer radius of gyration $R_g$. We find that…
Single polymer dynamics offers a powerful approach to study molecular-level interactions and dynamic microstructure in materials. Direct visualization of single chain dynamics has uncovered new ideas regarding the rheology and…
Packing is a complex phenomenon of prominence in many natural and industrial processes (liquid crystals, granular materials, infiltration, melting, flow, sintering, segregation, sedimentation, compaction, etc.). A variety of computational…
Nanoscale and microscale confinement of biopolymers naturally occurs in cells and has been recently achieved in artificial structures designed for nanotechnological applications. Here, we present an extensive theoretical investigation of…
We develop a statistical theory for the dynamics of non-aligning, non-interacting self-propelled particles confined in a convex box in two dimensions. We find that when the size of the box is small compared to the persistence length of a…
Polymer translocation through a nanopore in a membrane investigated theoretically. Recent experiments on voltage-driven DNA and RNA translocations through a nanopore indicate that the size and geometry of the pore are important factors in…
The mechanical properties of DNA play a critical role in many biological functions. For example, DNA packing in viruses involves confining the viral genome in a volume (the viral capsid) with dimensions that are comparable to the DNA…
Cells regulate gene expression in part by forming DNA-protein condensates in the nucleus. While existing theories describe the equilibrium size and stability of such condensates, their dynamics remain less understood. Here, we use…
Lipid membranes form the barrier between the inside and outside of cells and many of their subcompartments. As such, they bind to a wide variety of nano- and micrometer sized objects and, in the presence of strong adhesive forces, strongly…
Since the 1920s, packing arguments have been used to rationalize crystal structures in systems ranging from atomic mixtures to colloidal crystals. Packing arguments have recently been applied to complex nanoparticle structures, where they…
We investigate the conformations of DNA-like stiff chains, characterized by contour length ($L$) and persistence length ($l_p$), in a variety of crowded environments containing mono disperse soft spherical (SS) and spherocylindrical (SC)…
Biophysicists and structural biologists increasingly acknowledge the role played by the mechanical properties of macromolecules as a critical element in many biological processes. This change has been brought about, in part, by the advent…
The looping of polymers such as DNA is a fundamental process in the molecular biology of living cells, whose interior is characterised by a high degree of molecular crowding. We here investigate in detail the looping dynamics of flexible…
There are many proteins or protein complexes which have multiple DNA binding domains. This allows them to bind to multiple points on a DNA molecule (or chromatin fibre) at the same time. There are also many proteins which have been found to…
Although the concept of random close packing with an almost universal packing fraction of ~ 0.64 for hard spheres was introduced more than half a century ago, there are still ongoing debates. The main difficulty in searching the densest…