A wide range of signaling processes occurs at the cell surface through the reversible association of proteins from the cytosol to the plasma membrane. Some low abundant lipids are enriched at the membrane of specific compartments and thereby contribute to the identity of cell organelles by acting as biochemical landmarks. Lipids also influence membrane biophysical properties, which emerge as an...

An understanding of intermolecular interactions is essential for insight into how cells develop, operate, communicate, and control their activities. Such interactions include several components: contributions from linear, angular, and torsional forces in covalent bonds, van der waals forces, as well as electrostatics. Among the various components of molecular interactions, electrostatics are of...

Dynamic wetting problems are fundamental to understanding the interaction between liquids and solids. Even in a superficially simple experimental situation, such as a droplet spreading over a dry surface, the result may depend not only on the liquid properties but also strongly on the substrate-surface properties; even for macroscopically smooth surfaces, the microscopic geometrical roughness c...

Knowledge about the electrostatic potential on the surface of biomolecules or biomembranes under physiological conditions is an important step in the attempt to characterize the physico-chemical properties of these molecules and, in particular, also their interactions with each other. Additionally, knowledge about solution electrostatics may also guide the design of molecules with specified pro...

To improve the description of solvation thermodynamics of biomolecules, we report here the dependence of solvation on the curvature and surface charge of positively charged solutes in water based on extensive molecular dynamics simulations analyzed using the two-phase thermodynamic method. At a surface charge of +0.4e, the compensating forces of favorable electrostatic stabilization and entropi...

barrel vaults are attractive space structures that cover large area without intermediate supports. in this paper, the charged search system (css) optimization algorithm is employed for optimal design of barrel vaults. this method utilizes the governing laws of coulomb and gauss from electrostatics and the newtonian law of mechanics. the results demonstrate the efficiency of the discrete css alg...

Conservation of function across families of orthologous enzymes is generally accompanied by conservation of their active site electrostatic potentials. To study the electrostatic conservation in the highly conserved essential enzyme, thymidylate synthase (TS), we conducted a systematic species-based comparison of the electrostatic potential in the vicinity of its active site. Whereas the electr...