Internal dynamics of biological polymers: DNA molecules, actin filaments
Oleg Krichevsky
The problem of polymer dynamics is rather old, going back to the 1930-s.
How the stochastic thermal motion (diffusion) reveals itself in the dynamics of polymer segments which are bound by connectivity along the chain, by polymer stiffness, by topological constrains, by hydrodynamic and other interactions? The question does not have simple solutions either in theory, nor in computer simulations, and neither in experiments. We have developed an original experimental approach to measure the dynamics of biological polymers, such as DNA at the level of single monomer with high temporal and spatial resolution.
Furthermore, one does not have to rely on classical thermal fluctuations to drive the dynamics of the system. We introduce now molecular motors "little nanomachines" which actively push polymers around at the nanoscale.
In collaboration with Dr. Anne Bernheim-Groswasser, Chem. Eng.
Animation 1: The dynamics of a semi-flexible polymer.
- Further reading: