相关论文: A network model to investigate structural and elec…
We present for the first time a complex network approach to the study of the electrical properties of single protein devices. In particular, we consider an electronic nanobiosensor based on a G-protein coupled receptor. By adopting a coarse…
The increasing interest in photoactivated proteins as natural replacement of standard inorganic materials in photocells drives to the compared analysis of bacteriorhodopsin and proteorhodopsin, two widely diffused proteins belonging to the…
We present a theoretical investigation on possible selection of olfactory receptors (ORs) as sensing components of nanobiosensors. Accordingly, we generate the impedance spectra of the rat OR I7 in the native and activated state and analyze…
We report a theoretical/computational approach for modeling the current-voltage characteristics of sensing proteins. The modeling is applied to a couple of transmembrane proteins, bacteriorhodopsin and proteorhodopsin, sensitive to visible…
When moving from native to light activated bacteriorhodopsin, modification of charge transport consisting of an increase of conductance is correlated to the protein conformational change. A theoretical model based on a map of the protein…
Recently, great attention has been paid to the possibility of implementing hybrid electronic devices exploiting the self-assembling properties of single molecules. Impressive progress has been done in this field by using organic molecules…
We simulate the electrical properties of a device realized by a G protein coupled receptor (GPCR), embedded in its membrane and in contact with two metallic electrodes through which an external voltage is applied. To this purpose, recently,…
Recently, a growing interest has been addressed to the electrical properties of bacteriorhodopsin (bR), a protein belonging to the transmembrane protein family. To take into account the structure-dependent nature of the current, in a…
Proteins appear to be the most dramatic natural example of self-organized network criticality (SONC), a concept that explains many otherwise apparently exponentially unlikely phenomena. Adaptive plasticity is a term which has become much…
Novel numerical techniques, validated by an analysis of barnase and chymotrypsin inhibitor, are used to elucidate the paramount role played by the geometry of the protein backbone in steering the folding to the correct native state. It is…
Resolving the structural variability of proteins is often key to understanding the structure-function relationship of those macromolecular machines. Single particle analysis using Cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM), combined with…
Proteins are miniature machines whose function depends on their three-dimensional (3D) structure. Determining this structure computationally remains an unsolved grand challenge. A major bottleneck involves selecting the most accurate…
We review and further develop an analytical model that describes how thermodynamic constraints on the stability of the native state influence protein evolution in a site-specific manner. To this end, we represent both protein sequences and…
Understanding the molecular mechanisms driving the binding between bio-molecules is a crucial challenge in molecular biology. In this respect, characteristics like the preferentially hydrophobic composition of the binding interfaces, the…
Understanding the link between structure and function in proteins is fundamental in molecular biology and proteomics. A central question in this context is whether allostery - where the binding of a molecule at one site affects the activity…
We review the status of protein-based molecular electronics. First we discuss fundamental concepts of electron transfer and transport in and across proteins and proposed mechanisms for these processes. We then describe the immobilization of…
We introduce a simple theoretical approach for an equilibrium study of proteins with known native state structures. We test our approach with results on well-studied globular proteins, Chymotrypsin Inhibitor (2ci2), Barnase and the alpha…
We investigate electrical conduction through individual oligopeptide molecules thiol-bonded between gold nanocontacts using ab initio and semi-empirical techniques. Our theory explains for the first time these molecules' experimentally…
Proteins fold using a two-state or multi-state kinetic mechanisms, but up to now there isn't a first-principle model to explain this different behaviour. We exploit the network properties of protein structures by introducing novel…
Electron transfer (ET) through proteins, a fundamental element of many biochemical reactions, has been studied intensively in solution. We report the results of electron transport (ETp) measurements across proteins, sandwiched between two…