Related papers: Developing an unfolding-incorporated coarse-graine…
Contractile biopolymer networks, such as the actomyosin meshwork of animal cells, are ubiquitous in living organisms. The active gel theory, which provides the thermodynamic framework for these materials, has been mostly used in conjunction…
Active networks made of biopolymers and motor proteins are valuable bioinspired systems that have been used in the last decades to study the cytoskeleton and its self-organization under mechanical stimulation. Different techniques are…
Fibrillar adhesion, observed in animals like beetles, spiders, and geckos, relies on nanoscopic or microscopic fibrils to enhance surface adhesion via 'contact splitting.' This concept has inspired engineering applications across robotics,…
We propose a protein model based on a hierarchy of constraints that force the protein to follow certain pathways when changing conformation. The model exhibits a first order phase transition, cooperativity and is exactly solvable. It also…
We present a theory for the elasticity of cross-linked stiff polymer networks. Stiff polymers, unlike their flexible counterparts, are highly anisotropic elastic objects. Similar to mechanical beams stiff polymers easily deform in bending,…
The phase behaviour of two-component bottle-brush polymers with fully flexible backbones under poor solvent conditions is studied via molecular-dynamics simulations, using a coarse-grained bead-spring model and side chains of up to $N=40$…
In this paper, we present a new coarse-grained (CG) model for poly (alpha-peptoid)s that is compatible with the MARTINI CG FF. In the proposed model, CG poly (alpha-peptoid) is composed by a CG backbone (here we select polysarcosine as the…
Single-molecule atomic force spectroscopy probes elastic properties of titin, ubiquitin and other relevant proteins. We explain bioprotein folding dynamics under both length- and force-clamp by modeling polyprotein modules as particles in a…
In this paper, we present a theory to efficiently deal with mechanical properties of heterogeneous polymer chain in free space and the central problem is to evaluate the diffusion equation and orientation-orientation correlation function,…
Metastatic tumors often invade healthy neighboring tissues by forming multicellular finger-like protrusions emerging from the cancer mass. To understand the mechanical context behind this phenomenon, we here develop a minimalist fluid model…
Living cells are soft bodies of a characteristic form, but endowed with a capacity for a steady turnover of their structures. Both of these material properties, i.e. recovery of the shape after an external stress has been imposed and…
An automated prepreg fabric draping system is being developed which consists of an array of actuated grippers. It has the ability to pick up a fabric ply and place it onto a double-curved mold surface. A previous research effort based on a…
We introduce a mathematical model for the mechanical behaviour of the eukaryotic cell cytoskeleton. This discrete model involves a regular array of pre-stressed protein filaments that exhibit resistance to enthalpic stretching, joined at…
We present a statistical mechanics approach to the protein folding problem. We first review some of the basic properties of proteins, and introduce some physical models to describe their thermodynamics. These models rely on a random…
The mechanical properties of biological materials are spatially heterogeneous. Typical tissues are made up of a spanning fibrous extracellular matrix in which various inclusions, such as living cells, are embedded. While the influence of…
We consider two- and three-dimensional lattice models of proteins which were characterized previously. We coarse grain their folding dynamics by reducing it to transitions between effective states. We consider two methods of selection of…
The ability to computationally generate novel yet physically foldable protein structures could lead to new biological discoveries and new treatments targeting yet incurable diseases. Despite recent advances in protein structure prediction,…
Grain boundary (GB) migration stands as a linchpin process governing microstructural evolution in polycrystalline materials. Over the past decade, the concept of shear coupling, quantified through the shear coupling factor, has transformed…
A geometric analysis of protein folding, which complements many of the models in the literature, is presented. We examine the process from unfolded strand to the point where the strand becomes self-interacting. A central question is how it…
Bio-inspired composites are a great promise for mimicking the extraordinary and highly efficient properties of natural materials. Recent developments in voxel-by-voxel 3D printing have enabled extreme levels of control over the material…