Related papers: Statistical-physics approaches to RNA molecules, f…
The kinetic folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures is modeled as a complex adaptive system, the components of which are possible RNA structural rearrangements (SRs) and their associated bases and base pairs. RNA bases and base…
RNA molecules are essential cellular machines performing a wide variety of functions for which a specific three-dimensional structure is required. Over the last several years, experimental determination of RNA structures through X-ray…
We discuss the physics of RNA as described by its secondary structure. We examine the static properties of a homogeneous RNA-model that includes pairing and base stacking energies as well as entropic costs for internal loops. For large…
The formation of secondary structures by a random RNA sequence is studied as a model system for the sequence-structure problem omnipresent in biopolymers. Several toy energy models are introduced to allow detailed analytical and numerical…
We view the folding of RNA-sequences as a map that assigns a pattern of base pairings to each sequence, known as secondary structure. These preimages can be constructed as random graphs (i.e. the neutral networks associated to the structure…
The understanding, and even the description of protein folding is impeded by the complexity of the process. Much of this complexity can be described and understood by taking a statistical approach to the energetics of protein conformation,…
Non-coding RNA sequences play a great role in controlling a number of cellular functions, thus raising the need to understand their complex conformational dynamics in quantitative detail. In this perspective, we first show that single…
Atomically detailed simulations of RNA folding have proven very challenging in view of the difficulties of developing realistic force fields and the intrinsic computational complexity of sampling rare conformational transitions. To tackle…
RNA function is intimately related to its structural dynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations are useful for exploring biomolecular flexibility but are severely limited by the accessible timescale. Enhanced sampling methods allow this…
Predicting the secondary structure of RNA is a core challenge in computational biology, essential for understanding molecular function and designing novel therapeutics. The field has evolved from foundational but accuracy-limited…
An RNA sequence is a word over an alphabet on four elements $\{A,C,G,U\}$ called bases. RNA sequences fold into secondary structures where some bases match one another while others remain unpaired. Pseudoknot-free secondary structures can…
We describe quantitatively a RNA molecule under the influence of an external force exerted at its two ends as in a typical single-molecule experiment. Our calculation incorporates the interactions between nucleotides by using the…
Our work is concerned with the generation and targeted design of RNA, a type of genetic macromolecule that can adopt complex structures which influence their cellular activities and functions. The design of large scale and complex…
Structured RNA plays many functionally relevant roles in molecular life. Structural information, while required to understand the functional cycles in detail, is challenging to gather. Computational methods promise to complement…
Background: Since the invention of next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technologies, they have become a powerful tool to study the presence and quantity of RNA molecules in biological samples and have revolutionized transcriptomic…
Stochastic chains represent a wide and key variety of phenomena in many branches of science within the context of Information Theory and Thermodynamics. They are typically approached by a sequence of independent events or by a memoryless…
A transversal topic of my research has been the development and application of computational methods for DNA sequence analysis. The methods I have been developing aim at improving our understanding of the regulation processes happening in…
The dynamics of biological polymers, including proteins, RNA, and DNA, occur in very high-dimensional spaces. Many naturally-occurring polymers can navigate a vast phase space and rapidly find their lowest free energy (folded) state. Thus,…
We study genetic networks that produce many species of non-coding RNA molecules that are present at a moderate density, as typically exists in the cell. The associations of the many species of these RNA are modeled physically, taking into…
Ordered chains (such as chains of amino acids) are ubiquitous in biological cells, and these chains perform specific functions contingent on the sequence of their components. Using the existence and general properties of such sequences as a…