Related papers: Optimality in superselective surface binding by mu…
Multivalent particles have the ability to form multiple bonds to a substrate. Hence, a multivalent interaction can be strong, even if the individual bonds are weak. However, much more interestingly, multivalency greatly increases the…
Reliably distinguishing between cells based on minute differences in receptor density is crucial for cell-cell or virus-cell recognition, the initiation of signal transduction and selective targeting in directed drug delivery. Such sharp…
Nanoparticles functionalized with multiple ligands can be programmed to bind biological targets depending on the receptors they express, providing a general mechanism exploited in various technologies, from selective drug-delivery to…
Multivalency is prevalent in various biological systems and applications due to the superselectivity that arises from the cooperativity of multivalent binding. Traditionally, it was thought that weaker individual binding would improve the…
DNA-mediated multivalent interactions between colloidal particles have been extensively applied for their ability to program bulk phase behaviour and dynamic processes. Exploiting the competition between different types of DNA-DNA bonds,…
Liquid droplets of biomolecules serve as organizers of the cellular interior and are of interest in biosensing and biomaterials applications. Here, we investigate means to tune the interfacial properties of a model biomolecular liquid…
Multivalent binding employs multiple simultaneous supramolecular interactions, increasing avidity and selectivity compared with monovalent binding. While equilibrium aspects of multivalency are well characterized, non-equilibrium behavior…
Multivalent particles bind to targets via many independent ligand-receptor bonding interactions. This microscopic design spans length scales in both synthetic and biological systems. Classic examples include interactions between cells,…
The proper design of DNA sequences allows for the formation of well defined supramolecular units with controlled interactions via a consecution of self-assembling processes. Here, we benefit from the controlled DNA self-assembly to…
The self-assembly of DNA-coated colloids into highly-ordered structures offers great promise for advanced optical materials. However, control of disorder, defects, melting, and crystal growth is hindered by the lack of a microscopic…
Multivalent particles, i.e. microscopic constructs having multiple ligands, can be used to target surfaces selectively depending on their receptor density. Typically, there is a sharp onset of multivalent binding as the receptor density…
Selective targeting of membranes with a specific receptor profile is an ongoing challenge in targeted drug delivery. We investigate the adsorption of copolymers on a multicomponent receptor-covered surface using grand-canonical Monte Carlo…
In analogy with classic rigidity problems of networks and frames, the elastic properties of hydrogels made of DNA nanostars (DNAns) are expected to strongly depend on the precise geometry of their building blocks. However, it is currently…
Multivalent particles competing for binding on the same surface can exhibit switch-like behaviour, depending on the concentration of receptors on the surface. When the receptor concentration is low, energy dominates the free energy of…
Three-dimensional DNA networks, composed of tri- or higher valent nanostars with sticky, single-stranded DNA overhangs, have been previously studied in the context of designing thermally responsive, viscoelastic hydrogels. In this work, we…
From viruses to nanoparticles, constructs functionalized with multiple ligands display peculiar binding properties that only arise from multivalent effects. Using statistical mechanical modelling, we describe here how multivalency can be…
Molecular ecology uses molecular genetic data to answer traditional ecological questions in biogeography and biodiversity among others. Several ecological principles, such as the niche hypothesis and the competitive exclusions, are based on…
Multivalent interactions between deformable mesoscopic units are ubiquitous in biology, where membrane macromolecules mediate the interactions between neighbouring living cells and between cells and solid substrates. Lately, analogous…
Proteins often regulate their activities via allostery - or action at a distance - in which the binding of a ligand at one binding site influences the affinity for another ligand at a distal site. Although less studied than in proteins,…
The liquid-liquid phase separation of biomolecules is an important process for intracellular organization. Biomolecular sequence combinatorics leads to a large variety of proteins and nucleic acids which can interact to form a diversity of…