Related papers: Coarse-grained models for phase separation in DNA-…
Functionalization of nanoparticles or colloids is increasingly being used to develop customizable "atoms". Functionalization by attaching single strands of DNA allows for direct control of the binding between nanoparticles, since…
We present a phase-field model based on the Cahn-Hilliard equation to investigate the properties of phase separation in DNA nanostar systems. Leveraging a realistic free-energy functional derived from Wertheim theory, our model captures the…
DNA-functionalized particles have great potential for the design of complex self-assembled materials. The major hurdle in realizing crystal structures from DNA-functionalized particles is expected to be kinetic barriers that trap the system…
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…
We evaluate, by means of molecular dynamics simulations employing a realistic DNA coarse-grained model, the phase behaviour and the structural and dynamic properties of tetravalent DNA nanostars, i.e. nanoconstructs completely made of DNA.…
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…
Many recent studies of liquid-liquid phase separation in biology focus on phase separation as a dynamic control mechanism for cellular function, but it can also result in complex mesoscopic structures. We primarily investigate a model…
The translocation of a macromolecule through a nanometer-sized pore is an interesting process with important applications in the development of biosensors for single--molecule analysis and in drug delivery and gene therapy. We have carried…
Molecular motor proteins form the basis of cellular dynamics. Recently, notable efforts have led to the creation of their DNA-based mimics, which can carry out complex nanoscale motion. However, such functional analogues have not yet been…
We study sequence dependent complexation between oligonucleotides (single strand DNA) and various generation ethylene diamine (EDA) cored poly amido amide (PAMAM) dendrimers through atomistic molecular dynamics simulations accompanied by…
By means of extensive replica-exchange simulations of generic coarse-grained models for helical polymers, we systematically investigate the structural transitions into all possible helical phases for flexible and semiflexible elastic…
In many biopolymer solutions, attractive interactions that stabilize finite-sized clusters at low concentrations also promote phase separation at high concentrations. Here we study a model biopolymer system that exhibits the opposite…
We propose a new method for electrophoretic separation of DNA in which adsorbed polymers are driven over a disordered two-dimensional substrate which contains attractive sites for the polymers. Using simulations of a model for long polymer…
The distance-resolved effective interaction potential between two parallel DNA molecules is calculated by computer simulations with explicit tetravalent counterions and monovalent salt. Adding counterions first yields an attractive minimum…
Phase diagram of the ground states of DNA in a bad solvent is studied for a semi-flexible polymer model with a generalized local elastic bending potential characterized by a nonlinearity parameter $x$ and effective self-attraction promoting…
We introduce a coarse-grained model of DNA with bases modeled as rigid-body ellipsoids to capture their anisotropic stereochemistry. Interaction potentials are all physicochemical and generated from all-atom simulation/parameterization with…
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…
DNA plays a special role in polymer science not just because of the highly selective recognition of complementary single DNA strands but also because bacteria can express DNA chains that are very long yet perfectly monodisperse. The latter…
We present a quantitative, multi-scale coarse-grained model of DNA coated colloids. The parameters of this model are transferable and are solely based on experimental data. As a test case, we focus on nano-sized colloids carrying…
Our study aims at a better control and understanding of the transfer of a complex [DNA supercoiled plasmid - dodecyltrimethylammonium surfactant] layer from a liquid-vapour water interface onto a silicon surface without any additional…