The 99 amino acid C-terminal fragment of amyloid precursor protein (C99), consisting of a single transmembrane (TM) helix, is known to form homodimers. Homodimers can be processed by γ-secretase to produce amyloid-β (Aβ) protein, which is implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD). While knowledge of the structure of C99 homodimers is of great importance, experimental NMR studies and simulations ha...

Surfactant aggregation plays an important role in a variety of chemical and biological nanoscale processes. On a larger scale, using small amounts of amphiphiles compared to large volumes of bulk-phase modifiers can improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of many chemical and industrial processes. To model ternary mixtures of polar, nonpolar, and amphiphilic molecules, we dev...

The effect of compressed CO2 on the microenvironment of the two proteins (cytochrome c and RNase A) in sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse micelles was investigated using high-pressure steady-state fluorescence and time-resolved fluorescence. It is found that RNase A can shift from the water core to the interface of the reverse micellar cores as CO2 is dissolved, while cytochro...

We report long time scale simulations of the 18-residue helical antimicrobial peptide ovispirin-1 and its analogs novispirin-G10 and novispirin-T7 in SDS micelles. The SDS micelle serves as an economical and effective model for a cellular membrane. Ovispirin, which is initially placed along a micelle diameter, diffuses out to the water-SDS interface and stabilizes to an interface-bound steady s...

We have studied intercalation of ethidium bromide (EB) to genomic DNA encapsulated in a nanospace of an anionic AOT reverse micelle (RM). Circular dichroism (CD) study on the DNA in the RM reveals its condensed form. Here, we have used temporal decay-associated spectra (DAS) and time-resolved area normalized emission spectral (TRANES) techniques to investigate EB-binding to condensed DNA becaus...

The mechanism of the solvent extraction of cytochrome c (Cyt c) via reverse micelle formation was studied from an electrochemical point of view. Potentiometric measurements showed that the Galvani potential difference of the oil/water (O/W) interface played a crucial role in the spontaneous extraction of Cyt c with bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT). However, the dependence of the extraction...

The shape-controlled synthesis of nanoparticles was established in single-phase solutions by controlling growth directions of crystalline facets on seed nanocrystals kinetically; however, it was difficult to rationally predict and design nanoparticle shapes. Here we introduce a methodology to fabricate nanoparticles in smaller sizes by evolving shapes thermodynamically. This strategy enables a ...

We synthesize a series of block copolymers comprising a polystyrene (PS) block and an imidazolium-functionalized PS (IL) block and characterize their assembly properties. We use small-angle neutron scattering and dynamic light scattering to determine the micelle size and shape in dilute solutions and to assess the micelle interactions in concentrated solutions. By studying a series of copolymer...

An optimized reverse micelle surfactant system has been developed for solution nuclear magnetic resonance studies of encapsulated proteins and nucleic acids dissolved in low viscosity fluids. Comprising the nonionic 1-decanoyl-rac-glycerol and the zwitterionic lauryldimethylamine-N-oxide (10MAG/LDAO), this mixture is shown to efficiently encapsulate a diverse set of proteins and nucleic acids. ...