Related papers: Active droplets controlled by enzymatic reactions
Biomolecular condensates self-assemble when proteins and nucleic acids spontaneously demix to form droplets within the crowded intracellular milieu. This simple mechanism underlies the formation of a wide variety of membraneless…
Biomolecular condensates are liquid- or gel-like droplets of proteins and nucleic acids formed at least in part through liquid-liquid phase separation. Condensates enable diverse functions of cells and the pathogens that infect them,…
Droplets form a cornerstone of the spatiotemporal organization of biomolecules in cells. These droplets are controlled using physical processes like chemical reactions and imposed gradients, which are costly to simulate using traditional…
Biomolecules, such as proteins and RNAs, can phase separate in the cytoplasm of cells to form biomolecular condensates. Such condensates are liquid-like droplets that can wet biological surfaces such as membranes. Many molecules that…
The genome contains genetic information essential for cell's life. The genome's spatial organization inside the cell nucleus is critical for its proper function including gene regulation. The two major genomic compartments -- euchromatin…
Biomolecular condensates play essential roles in cellular processes, and recent efforts have focused on understanding their assembly and rational design principles. In this study, we have employed an explicit-solvent minimal statistical…
Biomolecular condensates form on timescales of seconds in cells upon environmental or compositional changes. Condensate formation is thus argued to act as a mechanism for sensing such changes and quickly initiating downstream processes,…
Bacteria living on surfaces are often confined to droplets. When these droplets evaporate, the motion of the liquid-air interface and the associated internal capillary flow confine the bacteria. Here we study how \emph{E. coli} bacteria…
It has been proposed that during the early steps in the origin of life, small droplets could have formed via the segregation of molecules from complex mixtures by phase separation. These droplets could have provided chemical reaction…
New advances in nano sciences open the door for scientists to study biological processes on a microscopic molecule-by-molecule basis. Recent single-molecule biophysical experiments on enzyme systems, in particular, reveal that enzyme…
In this work we study, at the single molecular level, the thermodynamic and dynamic characteristics of an enzymatic reaction comprising a rate limiting step. We investigate how the stability of the enzyme-state stationary probability…
We consider two minimal models of active fluid droplets that exhibit complex dynamics including steady motion, deformation, rotation and oscillating motion. First we consider a droplet with a concentration of active contractile matter…
We obtain the phase diagram for a harmonically trapped dilute dipolar condensate with a short ranged conservative three-body interaction. We show that this system supports two distinct fluid states: a usual condensate state and a…
Controlling the size of droplets, for example in biological cells, is challenging because large droplets typically outcompete smaller droplets due to surface tension. This coarsening is generally accelerated by hydrodynamic effects, but…
Proteins and nucleic acids can spontaneously self-assemble into membraneless droplet-like compartments, both in vitro and in vivo. A key component of these droplets are multi-valent proteins that possess several adhesive domains with…
Particle beams are important tools for probing atomic and molecular interactions. Here we demonstrate that particle beams also offer a unique opportunity to investigate interactions in macroscopic systems, such as granular media. Motivated…
Liquid-liquid phase separation is important across biology, physics, and materials science. Although usually studied at equilibrium, active components - such as motor proteins, enzymes, and synthetic microswimmers - are increasingly…
Phase-separated biomolecular condensates exhibit a wide range of dynamical properties, which depend on the sequences of the constituent proteins and RNAs. However, it is unclear to what extent condensate dynamics can be tuned without also…
Chemically active droplets provide simple models for cell-like systems that can grow and divide. Such active droplet systems are driven away from thermodynamic equilibrium and turn over chemically, which corresponds to a simple metabolism.…
Protein-stabilised emulsions can be seen as mixtures of unadsorbed proteins and of protein-stabilised droplets. To identify the contributions of these two components to the overall viscosity of sodium caseinate o/w emulsions, the…