Related papers: Protein structure, activity and thermal stability …
We perform systematic molecular dynamics simulations of water confined between two nanoscale plates at T=300 K. We investigate the effect of pressure (-0.15 GPa <= P <= 0.2 GPa) and plate separation (0.4 nm <= d <= 1.6 nm) on the phase…
It has been recently shown that nanobubbles exhibit a remarkable and unexpected stability. The lifetime of nanobubbles, formed either within liquids or on hydrophobic surfaces, can exceed by more than 10 orders of magnitude the theoretical…
Nanotubular molecular self-aggregates are characterized by a high degree of symmetry and they are fundamental systems for light-harvesting and energy transport. While coherent effects are thought to be at the basis of their high efficiency,…
Thin layers of water on biomolecular and other nanostructured surfaces can be supercooled to temperatures not accessible with bulk water. Chen et al. [PNAS 103, 9012 (2006)] suggested that anomalies near 220 K observed by quasi-elastic…
We present a computational study on the folding and aggregation of proteins in aqueous environment, as function of its concentration. We show how the increase of the concentration of individual protein species can induce a partial unfolding…
We investigated the vibrational dynamics and the structural relaxation of water nanoconfined in porous silica samples with pore size of 4 nm at different levels of hydration and temperature. We used as spectroscopic technique the…
We introduce a polymer model where the transition from swollen to compact configurations is due to interactions between the monomers and the solvent. These interactions are the origin of the effective attractive interactions between…
The hydrophobic effect stabilizes the native structure of proteins by minimizing the unfavourable interactions between hydrophobic residues and water through the formation of a hydrophobic core. Here we include the entropic and enthalpic…
Protein-protein interactions (protein functionalities) are mediated by water, which compacts individual proteins and promotes close and temporarily stable large-area protein-protein interfaces. Proteins are peptide chains decorated by amino…
Proteins, by virtue of their central role in most biological processes, represent one of the key subjects of the study of molecular evolution. Inherent to the indispensability of proteins for living cells is the fact that a given protein…
We present a thermodynamically consistent mesoscopic model of protein adsorption at liquid-solid interfaces. First describing the equilibrium state under varying protein concentration of the solution and binding conditions, we predict a…
Computer simulations are presented of the isotropic-to-nematic transition in a liquid crystal confined between two parallel plates a distance H apart. The plates are neutral and do not impose any anchoring on the particles. Depending on the…
We develop coarse-grained models that describe the dynamic encapsidation of functionalized nanoparticles by viral capsid proteins. We find that some forms of cooperative interactions between protein subunits and nanoparticles can…
Single particle dynamics of water confined in a nanopore is studied through Computer Molecular Dynamics. The pore is modeled to represent the average properties of a pore of Vycor glass. Dynamics is analyzed at different hydration levels…
We simulate a strongly size-disperse hard-sphere fluid confined between two parallel, hard walls. We find that confinement induces crystallization into n-layered hexagonal lattices and a novel honeycomb-shaped structure, facilitated by…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the diffusion of water inside deformed carbon nanotubes, with different degrees of eccentricity at 300K. We found a water structural transition between tubular-like to single-file for the (7,7)…
Combining elastic incoherent neutron scattering experiments at different resolutions with molecular dynamics simulations, we report the observation of a protein-like dynamical transition in linear chains of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). We…
Confinement can modify the dynamics, the thermodynamics and the structural properties of liquid water, the prototypical anomalous liquid. By considering a general anomalous liquid, suitable for globular proteins, colloids or liquid metals,…
Nanoscale confinement of molecules in a fluid can result in enhanced viscosity, local fluidic order, or collective motion. Confinement also affects ion transport and/or the rate and equilibrium concentration in a chemical reaction, all of…
We report here a molecular dynamics simulation study on water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in 1.6 nm cylindrical pores of silica to investigate a dynamical cross-over, observed earlier experimentally, wherein LiCl slows down confined…