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Our understanding of how chromosomes structurally organize and dynamically interact has been revolutionized through the lens of long-chain polymer physics. Major protein contributors to chromosome structure and dynamics are condensin and…
Allosteric interactions occur when binding at one part of a complex affects the interactions at another part. Allostery offers a high degree of control in multi-species processes, and these interactions play a crucial role in many…
To unlock the potential for assembling complex colloidal "molecules", we investigate a minimal binary system of programmable colloidal atom-electron equivalents (PAE-EE), where electron equivalents (EEs) are multivalent linkers with two…
A model of coupled molecular oscillators is proposed to study nonequilibrium thermodynamics of synchronization. We find that synchronization of nonequilibrium oscillators costs energy even when the oscillator-oscillator coupling is…
Recent progress in colloidal science has led to elaborate self-assembled structures whose complexity raises hopes for elaborating new materials. However, the throughputs are extremely low and consequently, the chance to produce materials of…
Multienzyme cascaded reactions are widely utilized because they can generate value-added biomaterials and biodevices from simple raw materials. However, how to promote the catalytic efficiency and synergistic effect of the multienzyme…
We use a coarse-grained model of DNA-functionalized particles to understand the role of DNA chain length on their self-assembly. We find that the increasing chain length for a given particle size decreases the propensity to form ordered…
Computer Aided Control System Design (CACSD) allows to analyze complex interconnected systems and design controllers achieving challenging control requirements. We extend CACSD to systems with time delays and illustrate the functionality of…
Active materials are capable of converting free energy into mechanical work to produce autonomous motion, and exhibit striking collective dynamics that biology relies on for essential functions. Controlling those dynamics and transport in…
The assembly of arbitrary 3D structures using nano- to micron-scale colloidal building blocks has broad applications in photonics, electronics, and biology. Combining optical tweezers (OT) with two-photon polymerization (TPP) enables 3D…
Colloidal self-assembly -- the spontaneous organization of colloids into ordered structures -- has been considered key to produce next-generation materials. However, the present-day staggering variety of colloidal building blocks and the…
Formation of highly ordered structures usually needs to overcome a high free-energy barrier that is greatly beyond the ability of thermodynamic fluctuation, such that the system would be easily trapped into a state with many defects and the…
Self-assembly of matter in solution generally relies on attractive interactions that overcome entropy and drive the formation of higher-order molecular and particulate structures. Such interactions play key roles in a variety of contexts,…
Many organisms possess both a cell cycle to control DNA replication and a circadian clock to anticipate changes between day and night. In some cases, these two rhythmic systems are known to be coupled by specific, cross-regulatory…
When three cyanobacterial proteins, KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC, are incubated with ATP in vitro, the phosphorylation level of KaiC hexamers shows stable oscillation with approximately 24 h period. In order to understand this KaiABC clockwork, we…
In self-assembly processes, kinetic trapping effects often hinder the formation of thermodynamically stable ordered states. In a model of viral capsid assembly and in the phase transformation of a lattice gas, we show how simulations in a…
The ability to control forces between sub-micron-scale building blocks offers considerable potential for designing new materials through self-assembly. A typical paradigm is to first identify a particular (crystal) structure that has some…
The organizational complexity of biominerals has long fascinated scientists seeking to understand biological programming and implement new developments in biomimetic materials chemistry. Nonclassical crystallization pathways have been…
Time-division multiplexing presents an attractive opportunity to probe multi-colloidal interactions in optical traps at short time-scales. In this paper, we demonstrate a stroboscopic system capable of arbitrary control of multiple trapped…
Templated copying is the central operation by which biology produces complex molecules. Cells copy sequence information from DNA to RNA and on into proteins, which are the molecules responsible for the function and regulation of cellular…