Related papers: Protein-Polymer Mixtures in the Colloid Limit: Agg…
A theory is set up of spherical proteins interacting by screened electrostatics and constant adhesion, in which the effective adhesion parameter is optimized by a variational principle for the free energy. An analytical approach to the…
A defocusing imaging technique has been used as a diagnostic to identify binary agglomerates (dimers) in complex plasmas. Quasi-two-dimensional plasma crystal consisting of monodisperse spheres and binary agglomerates has been created where…
In 1999 Wright and Dyson highlighted the fact that large sections of the proteome of all organisms are comprised of protein sequences that lack globular folded structures under physiological conditions. Since then the biophysics community…
We present a coarse-grained model for evaluation of interactions of globular proteins with nanoparticles. The protein molecules are represented by one bead per aminoacid and the nanoparticle by a homogeneous sphere that interacts with the…
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular organelle that forms a cell-spanning network of tubes and sheets, is an important location of protein synthesis and folding. When the ER experiences sustained unfolded protein stress, IRE1 proteins…
Statistical analysis of protein-protein interactions shows anomalously high frequency of homodimers [Ispolatov, I., et al. (2005) Nucleic Acids Res 33, 3629-35]. Furthermore, recent findings [Wright, C.F., et al. (2005) Nature 438, 878-81]…
We consider the properties of a self-avoiding polymer chain, adsorbed on a solid attractive substrate which is attached with one end to a pulling force. The conformational properties of such chain and its phase behavior are treated within a…
Many cell functions require a concerted effort from multiple membrane proteins, for example, for signaling, cell division, and endocytosis. One contribution to their successful self-organization stems from the membrane deformations that…
Advancements in the synthesis of faceted nanoparticles and colloids have spurred interest in the phase behavior of polyhedral shapes. Regular tetrahedra have attracted particular attention because they prefer local symmetries that are…
We investigate the structure and dynamics of a hard colloid-star polymer mixture in the range of its arrested phase separation, where an incipient demixing transition is interfering with a nearby vitrification line, focusing on the protein…
A phase of matter is a familiar notion for inanimate physical matter. The nature of a phase of matter transcends the microscopic material properties. For example, materials in the liquid phase have certain common properties independent of…
An ellipsoid, the simplest non-spherical shape, has been extensively used as models for elongated building blocks for a wide spectrum of molecular, colloidal and granular systems. Yet the densest packing of congruent hard ellipsoids, which…
Using Langevin dynamics complemented by Wang-Landau Monte Carlo simulations, we study the phase behavior of single and multiple semiflexible polymer chains in solution under poor-solvent conditions. In the case of a single chain, we obtain…
Protein complexes are macromolecules essential to the functioning and well-being of all living organisms. As the structure of a protein complex, in particular its region of interaction between multiple protein subunits (i.e., chains), has a…
We propose a two-body spherically symmetric (isotropic) potential such that particles interacting by the potential self assemble into linear semiflexible polymeric chains without branching. By suitable control of the potential parameters we…
We study the formation of protein-protein encounter complexes with a Langevin equation approach that considers direct, steric and thermal forces. As three model systems with distinctly different properties we consider the pairs…
Synthetic copolymers and biopolymers, such as polypeptides and double-stranded DNA, often exhibit strong variations in bending stiffness along their contour, which can significantly impact conformational behavior at larger scales. To…
``Seeding'' is the addition of preformed fibrils to a solution of monomeric protein to accelerate its aggregation into new fibrils. It is a versatile and widely-used tool for scientists studying protein aggregation kinetics, as it enables…
Dendritic polyelectrolytes constitute high potential drugs and carrier systems for biomedical purposes, still their biomolecular interaction modes, in particular those determining the binding affinity to proteins, have not been…
Purely entropic systems such as suspensions of hard rods, platelets and spheres show rich phase behavior. Rods and platelets have successfully been used as models to predict the equilibrium properties of liquid crystals for several decades.…