This paper discusses two approaches to modeling helical suspension springs for use in a dynamic finite element compressor model. The first approach represents the spring's stiffness characteristics with a simple spring element matrix. The appropriate spring constants are calculated using a separate finite element model of the spring. The spring modeling procedure is described and supplemented w...

A peptide-based electron-transfer system has been designed in which the specific positions of redox-active metal complexes appended to either an alpha-helix, or an alpha-helical coiled-coil, can be reversed to test the effect of the helix dipole in controlling photoinduced electron-transfer rates. Two 30-residue apopeptides were prepared having the following sequences: (I) Ac-K-(IEALEGK)(ICALEG...

Magic-sized clusters, as the intermediate state between molecules and nanoparticles, exhibit critical transitions of structures and material properties. We report two unique structures of gold clusters solved by x-ray crystallography, including Au40 and Au52 protected by thiolates. The Au40 and Au52 clusters exhibit a high level of complexity, with the gold atoms in the cluster first segregated...

The nuclear envelope (NE) creates a compartment within the interphase cell in which DNA replication, transcription and RNA processing can be regulated independently of translation. Components of the NE include the inner nuclear membrane (INM) and outer nuclear membrane (ONM), nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and the nuclear lamina. The lamina is a fibrous nucleoskeletal structure associated with t...

In a genome-wide screen for alpha-helical coiled coil motifs aiming at structurally defined vaccine candidates we identified PFF0165c. This protein is exported in the trophozoite stage and was named accordingly Trophozoite exported protein 1 (Tex1). In an extensive preclinical evaluation of its coiled coil peptides Tex1 was identified as promising novel malaria vaccine candidate providing the r...

Coiled coils are a major motif in proteins and orchestrate multimerization of various complexes important for biological processes. Inhibition of coiled coil-mediated interactions has significant biomedical potential. However, general approaches that afford short peptides with defined coiled coil conformation remain elusive. We evaluated several strategies to stabilize minimal helical bundles, ...

Large deformations of helical springs are affected by coil contact, but most available spring modelling techniques only account for nonlinear vertical motion, and Finite Elements (FE) analysis that considers contact between coils can be very expensive. A 2D model based on equivalent beam penalty-based algorithm is developed efficient yet realistic prediction non-uniform deflection. The proposed...

Subunit oligomerization of many proteins is mediated by coiled-coil domains. Although the basic features contributing to the thermodynamic stability of coiled coils are well understood, the mechanistic details of their assembly have not yet been dissected. Here we report a 13-residue sequence pattern that occurs with limited sequence variations in many two-stranded coiled coils and that is abso...