Related papers: Modulating lipid membrane morphology by dynamic DN…
The optimal design of DNA origami systems that assemble rapidly and robustly is hampered by the lack of a model for self-assembly that is sufficiently detailed yet computationally tractable. Here, we propose a model for DNA origami that…
Membranes are ubiquitous in nature with primary functions that include adaptive filtering and selective transport of chemical and molecular species. Being critical to cellular functions, they are also fundamental in many areas of science…
Rotary motors play key roles in energy transduction, from macroscale windmills to nanoscale turbines such as ATP synthase in cells. Despite our capabilities to construct engines at many scales, developing functional synthetic turbines at…
Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) composed of as few as three lipid species can phase separate into small-scale lipid domains with stripes and dots patterns. These patterns have been experimentally characterized in terms of how their size…
We present an approach to overcoming challenges in dynamical dexterity for robots through tunable origami structures. Our work leverages a one-parameter family of flat sheet crease patterns that folds into origami bellows, whose axial…
Biomembranes adopt varying morphologies that are vital to cellular functions. Many studies use computational modeling to understand how various mechanochemical factors contribute to membrane shape transformations. Compared to…
Sophisticated statistical mechanics approaches and human intuition have demonstrated the possibility to self-assemble complex lattices or finite size constructs, but have mostly only been successful in silico. The proposed strategies quite…
Existing Civil Engineering structures have limited capability to adapt their configurations for new functions, non-stationary environments, or future reuse. Although origami principles provide capabilities of dense packaging and…
Large-scale cellular transformations are triggered by subtle physical and structural changes in individual biomacromolecular and membrane components. A prototypical example of such an event is the orchestrated fusion of membranes within an…
Nucleation is the rate-determining step in the kinetics of many self-assembly processes. However, the importance of nucleation in the kinetics of DNA-origami self-assembly, which involves both the binding of staple strands and the folding…
Origami-based mechanical metamaterials have recently received significant scientific interest due to their versatile and reconfigurable architectures. However, it is often challenging to account for all possible geometrical configurations…
The interaction between elasticity and capillarity is used to produce three dimensional structures, through the wrapping of a liquid droplet by a planar sheet. The final encapsulated 3D shape is controlled by tayloring the initial geometry…
Stimulus-responsive DNA-hydrogels with swelling capabilities are a promising class of materials for biomedical applications such as drug delivery and biosensing. However, translation of these systems to microscale applications requires…
In the last two decades, DNA self-assembly has grown into a major area of research attracting people from diverse background. It has numerous potential applications such as targeted drug delivery, artificial photosynthesis etc. In the last…
We show how coarse-grained modelling combined with umbrella sampling using distance-based order parameters can be applied to compute the free-energy landscapes associated with mechanical deformations of large DNA nanostructures. We…
Soluble alpha-amylases play an important role in the catabolism of polysaccharides. In this work, we show that the enzyme can interact with the lipid membrane and further alter its mechanical properties. Vesicle fluctuation spectroscopy is…
Switchable elements are key components of dynamic technological and biological systems, enabling reversible transitions between well-defined states. Here, we present a DNA origami-based, mechanically bistable snap-through mechanism that can…
It is well known that the structural deformations (stressed states) of DNA molecule play a crucial role in its biological functions including gene expression. For instance, looping in DNA (often mediated by protein binding) is a crucial…
We use a coarse-grained molecular model to study the self-assembly process of complexes of cationic and neutral lipids with DNA molecules ("lipoplexes") - a promising nonviral carrier of DNA for gene therapy. We identify the resulting…
Origami offers a promising alternative for designing innovative soft robotic actuators. While features of origami, such as bi-directional motion and structural anisotropy, haven't been extensively explored in the past, this letter presents…