Related papers: Polymer translocation under a pulling force: scali…
We present a scaling theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation results for a flexible polymer chain slowly dragged by one end into a nanotube. We also describe the situation when the completely confined chain is released and gradually leaves…
While stretching of most polymer chains leads to rather featureless force-extension diagrams, some, notably DNA, exhibit non-trivial behavior with a distinct plateau region. Here we propose a unified theory that connects force-extension…
Forced desorption of a semiflexible polymer chain on a solid substrate is theoretically investigated. The pulling force versus displacement is studied for different adsorption energy and persistence length P. It is found that the…
The impact of thermal fluctuations on the translocation dynamics of a polymer chain driven through a narrow pore has been investigated theoretically and by means of extensive Molecular-Dynamics (MD) simulation. The theoretical consideration…
A rapid and low-cost method to sequence DNA would usher in a revolution in medicine. We propose and theoretically show the feasibility of a protocol for sequencing based on the distributions of transverse electrical currents of…
We review statistical-mechanical theories of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments on nucleic acids. First, models for describing polymer elasticity are introduced. We then review how these models are used to interpret…
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…
Polymer fibers are currently exploited in tremendously important technologies. Their innovative properties are mainly determined by the behavior of the polymer macromolecules under the elongation induced by external mechanical or…
We investigate the dynamics of nanoparticles in semidilute polymer solutions when the nanoparticles are comparably sized to the polymer coils using explicit- and implicit-solvent simulation methods. The nanoparticle dynamics are…
We have used Langevin dynamics to simulate the forced translocation of linked polymer rings through a narrow pore. For fixed size (i.e. fixed number of monomers) the translocation time depends on the link type and on whether the rings are…
The question of how stiff polymers are able to pack into small containers is particularly relevant to the study of DNA packaging in viruses. A reduced version of the problem based on coarse-grained representations of the main components of…
Polymer-coated pores play a crucial role in nucleo-cytoplasmic transport and in a number of biomimetic and nanotechnological applications. Here we present Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory approaches to identify different collective…
Forced detachment of a single polymer chain, strongly-adsorbed on a solid substrate, is investigated by two complementary methods: a coarse-grained analytical dynamical model, based on the Onsager stochastic equation, and Molecular Dynamics…
A double stranded DNA molecule under the stress of a pulling force acting on the strand terminals exhibits a partially denatured structure or can be completely unzipped depending the magnitude of the pulling force. A scaling argument for…
We study the deformation of nano--scale polymer films which are subject to external bending forces by means of computer simulation. The polymer is represented by a generalized bead--spring--model, intended to reproduce characteristic…
The translocation of double-stranded DNA through a solid-state nanopore may either decrease or increase the ionic current depending on the ionic concentration of the surrounding solution. Below a certain crossover ionic concentration, the…
Transport of tracer particles through mesh-like environments such as biological hydrogels and polymer matrices is ubiquitous in nature. These tracers could be passive, such as colloids or active (self-propelled), such as synthetic…
We consider the dynamics of polymer translocation out of confined environments. Analytic scaling arguments lead to the prediction that the translocation time scales like $\tau\sim N^{\beta+\nu_{2D}}R^{1+(1-\nu_{2D})/\nu}$ for translocation…
When mixed together, DNA and polyaminoamide (PAMAM) dendrimers form fibers that condense into a compact structure. We use optical tweezers to pull condensed fibers and investigate the decondensation transition by measuring force-extension…
DNA unzipping by nanopore translocation has implications in diverse contexts, from polymer physics to single-molecule manipulation to DNA-enzyme interactions in biological systems. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations and a…