Related papers: Spatial Organization of Phase-separated DNA Drople…
Lyotropic liquid crystals can display rich phase behaviour and self-organisation, yet the physical principles underlying their self-assembly into large scale patterns remains understudied. Here, we combine theory, simulations and…
Bacterial chromosome replication occurs in the absence of a canonical spindle apparatus; yet it reliably produces organised and segregated genomes. While both passive and active mechanisms have been investigated, DNA replication itself is a…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the equilibrium distribution of monovalent ions in a nanopore connecting two water reservoirs separated by a membrane, both for the empty pore and that with a single stranded DNA molecule…
The motion of the three-phase contact line between two immiscible fluids and a solid surface arises in a variety of wetting phenomena and technological applications. One challenge in continuum theory is the effective representation of…
We report the splitting of an oscillating DNA circuit into $\sim 700$ droplets with picoliter volumes. Upon incubation at constant temperature, the droplets display sustained oscillations that can be observed for more than a day.…
By generalizing a class of models recently introduced to account for protracted transients in biological systems, we identify a novel mechanism for hyperuniformity. In this model, competition of particles over a shared resource guides the…
We investigate DNA breathing dynamics by suggesting and examining several different Brownian functionals associated with bubble lifetime and reactivity. Bubble dynamics is described as an overdamped random walk in the number of broken base…
Patterns are quotidian in nature. Distinct multiscale patterns are generally a consequence of nonequilibrium dynamical processes associated with mechanical or hydrodynamic instabilities. In this thesis, I report experimental investigations…
Droplet deformations caused by substrate vibrations are ubiquitous in nature and highly relevant for applications such as microreactors and single-cell sorting. The vibrations can induce droplet oscillations, a fundamental process that…
Short DNA linkers are increasingly being exploited for driving specific self-assembly of Brownian objects. DNA-functionalised colloids can assemble into ordered or amorphous materials with tailored morphology. Recently, the same approach…
Periodic arrays of micro- or nano-pillars constitute solid state matrices with excellent properties for DNA size separation. Nanofabrication technologies offer many solutions to tailor the geometry of obstacle arrays, yet most studies have…
We introduce a new experimental approach to study the structural transitions of large numbers of nanoparticle-coated droplets as their volume is reduced. We use an emulsion system where the dispersed phase is slightly soluble in the…
Formation, maintenance and physiology of high-density protein-enriched organized nanodomains, first observed in electron microscopy images, remains challenging to investigate due to their small sizes. However, these regions regulate…
A cell dynamics method for domain separation of diblock copolymers (DBCPs) interacting with nanoparticles (NPs) whose diffusion coefficients depend on chain configuration is proposed for self-assembly of DBCP/NP composites. Increasing NP…
The specificity and thermal reversibility of DNA interactions have enabled the self-assembly of crystal structures, self-replicating materials and colloidal molecules. Grafting DNA onto liquid interfaces of emulsions leads to exciting new…
We determine the phase diagram of DNA with inter- and intra-strand native-pair interactions that mimic the compaction of DNA. We show that DNA takes an overall sheet-like structure in the region where an incipient transition to a compact…
Drying of biologically-relevant sessile droplets, including passive systems (like DNA and proteins), as well as active microbial systems comprising bacteria and algae, have garnered considerable attention over the last decades. Distinct…
The transport of macromolecules, such as DNA, through the cytoskeleton is critical to wide-ranging cellular processes from cytoplasmic streaming to transcription. The rigidity and steric hindrances imparted by the network of filaments…
Binary mixtures of water with lower alcohols display non-linear phase behaviour upon mixing which are attributed to potential cluster formation at molecular level. Unravelling such elusive structures requires the investigation of…
Transcriptional activity has been shown to relate to the organization of chromosomes in the eukaryotic nucleus and in the bacterial nucleoid. In particular, highly transcribed genes, RNA polymerases and transcription factors gather into…