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Protein-surface interactions cause the desirable effect of controlled protein adsorption onto biodevices as well as the undesirable effect of protein fouling. The key to controlling protein-surface adsorptions is to identify and quantify…
Scaffold proteins organize cellular processes by bringing signaling molecules into interaction, sometimes by forming large signalosomes. Several of these scaffolds are known to polymerize. Their assemblies should therefore not be understood…
The chromatin fiber is a complex of DNA and specific proteins called histones forming the first structural level of organization of eukaryotic chromosomes. In tightly organized chromatin fibers, the short segments of naked DNA linking the…
Aggregates of twisted protein fibers, such as sickle hemoglobin and actin, are important examples of biopolymers in which elastic interactions play a crucial role in determining the (metastable) bundle radii. Here, we present a corrected…
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…
Many functional units in biology, such as enzymes or molecular motors, are composed of several subunits that can reversibly assemble and disassemble. This includes oligomeric proteins composed of several smaller monomers, as well as protein…
The folding transition of biopolymers from the coil to compact structures has attracted wide research interest in the past and is well studied in polymer physics. Recent seminal works on DNA in confined devices have shown that these long…
Extreme deformation of soft matter is central to our understanding of the effects of shock, fracture, and phase change in a variety of systems. Yet, despite, the increasing interest in this area, far-from-equilibrium behaviours of soft…
We perform molecular dynamics simulations for a simple coarse-grained model of crambin placed inside of a softly repulsive sphere of radius R. The confinement makes folding at the optimal temperature slower and affects the folding…
Doped organic semiconductors are critical to emerging device applications, including thermoelectrics, bioelectronics, and neuromorphic computing devices. It is commonly assumed that low conductivities in these materials result primarily…
Availability of high-resolution crystal structures of ribosomal subunits of different species opens a route to investigate about molecular interactions between its constituents and stabilization strategy. Structural analysis of the small…
Active forces occurring within cells can drive crucial biological processes that involve spontaneous organization and shape change, such as cell division. Motivated by recent in vitro experiments of nematic droplets of cytoskeletal…
Two types of high-strength composite hydrogels possessing the structure of interpenetrating polymer networks were synthesized via free-radical polymerization of acrylamide carried out straight within the matrix of plant or bacterial…
By means of extensive replica-exchange simulations of generic coarse-grained models for helical polymers, we systematically investigate the structural transitions into all possible helical phases for flexible and semiflexible elastic…
Bundles of polymer filaments are responsible for the rich and unique mechanical behaviors of many biomaterials, including cells and extracellular matrices. In fibrin biopolymers, whose nonlinear elastic properties are crucial for normal…
Cooperativity plays an important role in the action of proteins bound to DNA. A simple, mechanical mechanism for cooperativity, in the form of a tension-mediated interaction between proteins bound to DNA at two different locations is…
A solid-state nanopore can electrophoretically capture a DNA molecule and pull it through in a folded configuration. The resulting ionic current signal indicates where along its length the DNA was captured. A statistical study using an 8 nm…
Rafts, or functional domains, are transient nano- or mesoscopic structures in the plasma membrane and are thought to be essential for many cellular processes such as signal transduction, adhesion, trafficking and lipid/protein sorting.…
Ferrogels, i.e. swollen polymer networks into which magnetic particles are immersed, can be considered as "smart materials" since their shape and elasticity can be controlled by an external magnetic field. Using molecular dynamics…
Dense granular materials and other particle aggregates transmit stress in a manner that belies their microstructural disorder. A subset of the particle contact network is strikingly coherent, wherein contacts are aligned nearly linearly and…