Related papers: Direct imaging of polymer filaments pulled from re…
Soft substrates decorated with micropillar arrays are known to be sensitive to deflection due to capillary action. In this work, we demonstrate micropillared epoxy surfaces are sensitive to single drops of bacterial suspensions. The…
Semi-flexible polymers in crowded environments exhibit complex dynamics that play a crucial role in various biological and material design processes. Based on the classic reptation theory, it is generally believed that semiflexible polymers…
Electrically conducting polymers with mechanical adaptability are essential for flexible electronics, yet most suffer structural degradation under rapid deformation. In this study, multiscale coarse-grained (MSCG) simulations are used to…
Biofilms are complex, self-organized consortia of microorganisms that produce a functional, protective matrix of biomolecules. Physically, the structure of a biofilm can be described as an entangled polymer network which grows and changes…
Single polymer dynamics offers a powerful approach to study molecular-level interactions and dynamic microstructure in materials. Direct visualization of single chain dynamics has uncovered new ideas regarding the rheology and…
The cellular cytoplasm is organized into compartments. Phase separation is a simple manner to create membrane-less compartments in order to confine and localize particles like proteins. In many cases these particles are bound to fluctuating…
The effects of elasticity on filament thinning and breakup are investigated in microchannel cross flow. When a viscous solution is stretched by an external immiscible fluid, a low 100 ppm polymer concentration strongly affects the breakup…
Controlled deposition of DNA on graphene films obtained with the aid of mechanical splitting of graphite on a substrate with an epoxy sublayer is demonstrated. The DNA molecules are visualized using AFM.
The dynamic behavior of a partially wetting polymer droplet driven over a nanostructured interface is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. We consider the bead-spring model to represent a polymeric liquid that partially wets a…
Directed polymers (strings) and semiflexible polymers (filaments) are one-dimensional objects governed by tension and bending energy, respectively. They undergo unbinding transitions in the presence of a short-range attractive potential.…
The disintegration of liquid sheets into ligaments and droplets involves highly transient, multi-scale dynamics that are difficult to quantify from high-speed shadowgraphy images. Identifying droplets, ligaments, and blobs formed during…
Nature uses elongated shapes and filaments to build stable structures, generate motion, and allow complex geometric interactions. In this Review, we examine the role of biological filaments across different length scales. From the molecular…
Phase separated macromolecules play essential roles in many biological and synthetic systems. Physical characterization of these systems can be challenging because of limited sample volumes, particularly for phase-separated proteins. Here,…
Thin cylindrical tethers are common lipid bilayer membrane structures, arising in situations ranging from micromanipulation experiments on artificial vesicles to the dynamic structure of the Golgi apparatus. We study the shape and formation…
Spontaneous self-assembly in molecular systems is a fundamental route to both biological and engineered soft matter. Simple micellisation, emulsion formation, and polymer mixing principles are well understood. However, the principles behind…
We demonstrate a novel route of spatially organizing the colloid arrangements on the polymer-grafted substrate by use of self-consistent field and density functional theories. We find that grafting of polymers onto a substrate can…
Super-resolution microscopy is crucial for imaging sub-wavelength biological structures. However, most techniques rely on nonlinear saturation or stochastic switching of emitters, limiting imaging speed and increasing phototoxicity. Here,…
Mesoscale molecular assemblies on the cell surface, such as cilia and filopodia, integrate information, control transport and amplify signals. Synthetic devices mimicking these structures could sensitively monitor these cellular functions…
In the self-assembly process which drives the formation of cellular membranes, micelles, and capsids, a collection of separated subunits spontaneously binds together to form functional and more ordered structures. In this work, we study the…
We study the adsorption of semiflexible polymers such as polyelectrolytes or DNA on planar and curved substrates, e.g., spheres or washboard substrates via short-range potentials using extensive Monte-Carlo simulations, scaling arguments,…