Related papers: Cation accumulation drives the preferential partit…
We study the partitioning of motile bacteria in an aqueous two-phase mixture of dextran (DEX) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), which can phase separate into DEX-rich and PEG-rich phases. While non-motile bacteria partition exclusively into…
Protein nanoparticles have been proven to be highly effective stabilizers of water-in-water emulsions obtained from a number of different types of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS). The stabilizing efficiency of such particles is attributed…
Structural changes in giant DNA induced by the addition of the flexible polymer PEG were examined by the method of single-DNA observation. In dilute DNA conditions, individual DNA assumes a compact state via a discrete coil-globule…
We discuss the role of water bridging the DNA-enzyme interaction by resorting to recent results showing that London dispersion forces between delocalized electrons of base pairs of DNA are responsible for the formation of dipole modes that…
Motile droplets using Marangoni convection are attracting attention for their potential as cell-mimicking small robots. However, the motion of droplets relative to the internal and external environments that generate Marangoni convection…
Liquid-liquid phase separation of aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is fundamental across physical and biological sciences. While well understood for passive systems, how this process is regulated by active agents such as motile bacteria…
The stability and dynamics of a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) is affected by the preferential occupancy of small monovalent molecular ions. Small metal and molecular ions such as sodium and alkyl ammonium have crucial biological functions in…
Polymer topology, which plays a principal role in the rheology of polymeric fluids, and non-equilibrium materials, which exhibit time-varying rheological properties, are topics of intense investigation. Here, we push composites of circular…
Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs), that is, phase-separating solutions of water soluble but mutually immiscible molecular species, offer fascinating prospects for selective partitioning, purification, and extraction. Here, we formulate a…
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…
DNA is now firmly established as a versatile and robust platform for achieving synthetic nanostructures. While the folding of single molecules into complex structures is routinely achieved through engineering basepair sequences, much less…
The lack of molecular-level understanding for the electronic excitation response of DNA to charged particle radiation, such as high-energy protons, remains a fundamental scientific bottleneck in advancing proton and other ion beam cancer…
We have performed Molecular Dynamics simulations of ectoine, hydroxyectoine and urea in explicit solvent. Special attention has been spent on the local surrounding structure of water molecules. Our results indicate that ectoine and…
Concentrated solutions of short blunt-ended DNA duplexes, down to 6 base pairs, are known to order into the nematic liquid crystal phase. This self-assembly is due to the stacking interactions between the duplex terminals that promotes…
Cells operate in part by compartmentalizing chemical reactions. For example, recent work has shown that chromatin, the material that contains the cell's genome, can auto-regulate its structure by utilizing reaction products (proteins, RNA)…
Polymer architecture plays critical roles in both bulk rheological properties and microscale macromolecular dynamics in entangled polymer solutions and composites. Ring polymers, in particular, have been the topic of much debate due to the…
Electrodes composed of activated carbon (AC) particles can desalinate water by ion electrosorption. To describe ion electrosorption mathematically, accurate models are required for the structure of the electrical double layers (EDLs) that…
Driven dissipative systems at ambient conditions typically exhibit continuous responses shaped by fluctuations and relaxation, with discrete macroscopic states arising only under specific dynamical constraints. Here, we report the emergence…
Understanding and controlling the rheology of polymeric complex fluids that are pushed out-of-equilibrium is a fundamental problem in both industry and biology. For example, to package, repair, and replicate DNA, cells use enzymes to…
Associative polymers (APs) with reversible, specific interactions between ``sticker'' sites exhibit a phase behavior that depends on a delicate balance between distinct contributions controlling the binding. For highly-bonded systems, it is…