Related papers: Simple Growth Models of Rigid Multifilament Biopol…
The polymerization dynamics of double-stranded polymers, such as actin filaments, is investigated theoretically using simple chemical kinetic models that explicitly take into account some microscopic details of the polymer structure and the…
The process of force generation by the growth of biopolymers is simulated via a Langevin-dynamics approach. The interaction forces are taken to have simple forms that favor the growth of straight fibers from solution. The force-velocity…
We systematically explore the self-assembly of semi-flexible polymers in deformable spherical confinement across a wide regime of chain stiffness, contour lengths and packing fractions by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
We investigate stall force and polymerization kinetics of rigid protofilaments in a microtubule or interacting filaments in bundles under an external load force in the framework of a discrete growth model. We introduce the concecpt of…
Polymers consisting of more than one type of monomer, known as copolymers, are vital to both living and synthetic systems. Copolymerisation has been studied theoretically in a number of contexts, often by considering a Markov process in…
Manufacturing end-of-fiber optical components able to realize optical functions ranging from a simple lens to more complex functions such as mode selective components is a decisive but \emph{a priori} complex task owing to the fiber core…
Entangled networks of stiff biopolymers exhibit complex dynamic response, emerging from the topological constraints that neighboring filaments impose upon each other. We propose a class of reference models for entanglement dynamics of stiff…
The intermittent transition between slow growth and rapid shrinkage in polymeric assemblies is termed dynamic instability, a feature observed in a variety of biochemically distinct assemblies including microtubules, actin and their…
Polymer association at liquid-liquid interfaces is a promising way to spontaneously obtain soft self-healing membranes. In the case of reversible bonding between two polymers, the macromolecules are mobile everywhere within the membrane and…
In this paper we address some modelling issues related to biological growth. Our treatment is based on a recently-proposed, general formulation for growth within the context of Mixture Theory (Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids,…
Nanoscale and microscale confinement of biopolymers naturally occurs in cells and has been recently achieved in artificial structures designed for nanotechnological applications. Here, we present an extensive theoretical investigation of…
Bacteria often form surface-bound communities, embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix, called biofilms. Quantitative studies of their growth have typically focused on unconfined expansion above solid or semi-solid surfaces,…
We perform equilibrium computer simulations of a two-dimensional pinned flexible polymer exposed to a quenched disorder potential consisting of hard disks. We are especially interested in the high-density regime of the disorder, where…
Recently, much attention has been given to a noteworthy property of some soft tissues: their ability to grow. Many attempts have been made to model this behaviour in biology, chemistry and physics. Using the theory of finite elasticity,…
We employ a multiscale approach to model the translocation of biopolymers through nanometer size pores. Our computational scheme combines microscopic Molecular Dynamics (MD) with a mesoscopic Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for the solvent…
A dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) model for the quantitative simulation of biofilm growth controlled by substrate (nutrient) consumption, advective and diffusive substrate transport, and hydrodynamic interactions with fluid flow…
We study the over-damped dynamics of individual one-dimensional elastic filaments subjected to a chiral active force which propels each point of the filament at a fixed angle relative to the tangent vector of the filament at that point.…
We employ a multiscale approach to model the translocation of biopolymers through nanometer size pores. Our computational scheme combines microscopic Langevin molecular dynamics (MD) with a mesoscopic lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for the…
We present a general theoretical analysis of semiflexible filaments subject to viscous drag or point forcing. These are the relevant forces in dynamic experiments designed to measure biopolymer bending moduli. By analogy with the ``Stokes…
We investigate the stretching response of a thick polymer model by means of extensive stochastic simulations. The computational results are synthesized in an analytic expression that characterizes how the force versus elongation curve…