This review will summarize our structural and kinetic studies of RB69 DNA polymerase (RB69pol) as well as selected variants of the wild-type enzyme that were undertaken to obtain a deeper understanding of the exquisitely high fidelity of B family replicative DNA polymerases. We discuss how the structures of the various RB69pol ternary complexes can be used to rationalize the results obtained fr...

We demonstrate tunable electrical and thermal conductivities through freezing rate control in solution-based nanocomposites. For a prototypical suspension of 1 vol % multilayer graphene suspended in hexadecane, the solid-liquid electrical conductivity contrast ratio can be tuned from 1 to 4.5 orders of magnitude for freezing rates between 10(2) and 10(-3) °C/min. We hypothesize that this dramat...

The synthesis of nanostructured anionic-surfactant-templated mesoporous silica (AMS) recently appeared as a new strategy for the formation of nanostructured silica based materials. This method is based on the use of anionic surfactants together with a co-structure-directing agent (CSDA), mostly a silylated ammonium precursor. The presence of this CSDA is necessary in order to create ionic inter...