Related papers: Thermodynamic competition between membrane protein…
Amyloid fibers are aggregates of proteins. They are built out of a peptide called $\beta$--amyloid (A$\beta$) containing between 41 and 43 residues, produced by the action of an enzyme which cleaves a much larger protein known as the…
Biological membranes are self-assembled complex fluid interfaces that host proteins, molecular motors and other macromolecules essential for cellular function. These membranes have a distinct in-plane fluid response with a surface viscosity…
This work introduces a methodology for the statistical mechanical analysis of polymeric chains under tension controlled by optical or magnetic tweezers at thermal equilibrium with an embedding fluid medium. The response of single bonds…
Mesoscopic structure of the periodically alternating layers of stretched homopolymer chains surrounded by perpendicularly oriented oligomeric tails is studied for the systems with both strong (ionic) and weak (hydrogen) interactions. We…
Protein aggregation in the form of amyloid fibrils has important biological and technological implications. Although the self-assembly process is highly efficient, aggregates not in the fibrillar form would also occur and it is important to…
Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they…
Fluid membranes made out of lipid bilayers are the fundamental separation structure in eukaryotic cells. Many physiological processes rely on dramatic shape and topological changes (e.g. fusion, fission) of fluid membrane systems. Fluidity…
In addressing the origins of Darwinian evolution, recent experimental work has been focussed on the discovery of simple physical effects which would provide a relevant selective advantage to protocells competing with each other for a…
We present a novel statistical mechanics formalism for the theoretical description of the process of protein folding$\leftrightarrow$unfolding transition in water environment. The formalism is based on the construction of the partition…
Lipid membranes have complex compositions and modeling the thermodynamic properties of multi-component lipid systems remains a remote goal. In this work we attempt to describe the thermodynamics of binary lipid mixtures by mapping…
Cellular actin structures are continuously turned over while keeping similar sizes. Since they all compete for a shared pool of actin monomers, the question arises how they can coexist in these dynamic steady states. Recently, the…
The point-curvature model for membrane protein inclusions is shown to capture multibody interactions very well. Using this model, we find that the interplay between membrane tension and multibody interactions results in a collective…
Extensive Monte Carlo folding simulations for four proteins of various structural classes are carried out, using a single atomistic potential. In all cases, collapse occurs at a very early stage, and proteins fold into their native-like…
Some dimeric proteins first fold and then dimerize (three--state dimers) while others first dimerize and then fold (two--state dimers). Within the framework of a minimal lattice model, we can distinguish between sequences obeying to one or…
What are the molecular mechanisms that dictate protein-protein binding stability and whether those are related to the ones behind protein fold stability are still largely open questions. Indeed, despite many past efforts, we still lack…
In many biopolymer solutions, attractive interactions that stabilize finite-sized clusters at low concentrations also promote phase separation at high concentrations. Here we study a model biopolymer system that exhibits the opposite…
Membrane proteins are crucial in regulating biomembrane shapes and controlling the dynamic changes in membrane morphology during essential cellular processes. These proteins can localize to regions with their preferred curvatures (curvature…
A major part of membrane function is conducted by proteins, both integral and peripheral. Peripheral membrane proteins temporarily adhere to biological membranes, either to the lipid bilayer or to integral membrane proteins with…
The internal dynamics of strongly interacting systems and that of biomolecules such as proteins display several important analogies, despite the huge difference in their characteristic energy and length scales. For example, in all such…
Biological membranes and vesicles play a central role in living systems, forming dynamic interfaces that regulate cellular organization and function. Classical descriptions of membrane mechanics that are rooted in equilibrium statistical…