Microtubules are hollow rod-like polymers (figure 1). They fulfill a varied range of functions including maintenance of cell integrity, forming a spindle that facilitates chromosome separation and as a protein polymer ‘track’ for intracellular transport by molecular motors such as kinesin and dynein. Each microtubule is made of 13 protofilaments consisting of linearly arranged tubulin molecules...

Recent single-molecular observations have revealed that a single giant DNA molecule assumes (micro) phase separated structures upon the addition of condensing agents. Electron and atomic force microscopy have clearly shown the coexistence of ordered tori and disordered coil structures within a single DNA molecule. Motivated by these experimental findings, we theoretically investigated the colla...

The usefulness of linear dichroism (LD) in structure identification depends strongly on the orientation of the molecule in the linear dichroism cell. Hence, the fluid flow inside the linear dichroism cell which performs this act of orientation is of great importance. As such, this paper records the steps taken to identify the varying flow states in the cell, with changing rotation speed, and th...

Endothelial cells of the central nervous system over-express surface proteins during neurological disorders, either as a cause, or a consequence, of the disease. Since the cerebral vasculature is easily accessible by large contrast-carrying particles, it constitutes a target of choice for molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this review, we highlight the most recent advances in molecu...

We present in this paper the findings of a study on the role of macroadaptation in conversational intelligent tutoring. Macro-adaptivity refers to a system’s capability to select appropriate instructional tasks for the learner to work on. Micro-adaptivity refers to a system’s capability to adapt its scaffolding while the learner is working on a particular task. We compared an intelligent tutori...

A cell can be thought of as a highly sophisticated micro factory: in a pool of billions of molecules - metabolites, structural proteins, enzymes, oligonucleotides - multi-subunit complexes assemble to perform a large number of basic cellular tasks, such as DNA replication, RNA/protein synthesis or intracellular transport. By purifying single components and using them to reconstitute molecular p...

    Electrochemical aptamer-based sensors attract a lot of interest as useful methods because of their low cost, accuracy, sensitivity, and simplicity. An electro-active redox molecule comprises the main part of the electrochemical-based sensors. Ferrocene is one of the most popular redox molecule used in biosensor fabrication. But, instability of ferrocenium ion in strong nucleophilic reagents...

The challenge of modeling the organization and function of biological membranes on a solid support has received considerable attention in recent years, primarily driven by potential applications in biosensor design. Affinity-based biosensors show great promise for extremely sensitive detection of BW agents and toxins. Receptor molecules have been successfully incorporated into phospholipid bila...

Fasciclin I is a homophilic cell adhesion molecule in insects that is dynamically expressed on a subset of axon pathways in the embryonic nervous system, and on a variety of other cells and tissues during development. The fasciclin I protein consists of four homologous 150 amino acid domains. In this article, we describe the complete sequence of the Drosophila fasciclin I (fasI) gene. The gene ...