Structure formation and constant reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton are key requirements for the function of living cells. Here we show that a minimal reconstituted system consisting of actin filaments, crosslinking molecules and molecular-motor filaments exhibits a generic mechanism of structure formation, characterized by a broad distribution of cluster sizes. We demonstrate that the gr...

Recent development of high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) instruments enables chemical crosslinking (XL) to become a high-throughput method for obtaining structural information about proteins. Restraints derived from XL-MS experiments have been used successfully for structure refinement and protein-protein docking. However, one formidable question is under which circumstances XL-MS data migh...

Extracellular matrix (ECM) strongly influences cellular behaviors, including cell proliferation, adhesion, and particularly migration. In cancer, the rigidity of the stromal collagen environment is thought to control tumor aggressiveness, and collagen alignment has been linked to tumor cell invasion. While the mechanical properties of collagen at both the single fiber scale and the bulk gel sca...

Hydrogels based on N-isopropylacrylamide and sodium acrylate as ionic comonomer were synthesized by free radical polymerization in water using N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as crosslinker and ammonium persulfate as initiator. The glass transition of dried copolymers poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) and poly(sodium acrylate) (SA) gels and demixing/mixing transition of PNIPA-SA hydrogels swollen...

SecA binds to the inner membrane of Escherichia coli through low affinity lipid interactions or with high affinity at SecYEG, the integral domain of preprotein translocase. Upon addition of preprotein and nucleotide, a 30 kDa domain of SecYEG-bound SecA is protected from proteolysis via membrane insertion. Such protection could result from some combination of insertion into the lipid phase, int...

Petroleum-derived monomers are the most common building blocks for ester-based thermosets. Bio-derived thermoset elastomers becoming viable alternatives to conventional Herein, we developed a biobased vitrimer-type using abundant and sustainable raspberry ketone as feedstock. We utilize create dynamic oxime chemistry crosslinked these through free radical polymerization with poly(ethylene glyco...

Single molecule force spectroscopy is a technique that can be used to probe the interaction force between individual biomolecular species. We focus our attention on the tip and sample coupling chemistry, which is crucial to these experiments. We utilised a novel approach of mixed self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols in conjunction with a heterobifunctional crosslinker. The effectiveness of...

Novel self-crosslinked alkaline anion exchange membranes with high alkaline stability, excellent dimensional stability and extraordinary methanol resistance were synthesized successfully without using any catalyst or a separate crosslinker.

Combining simulations and theory I study the interplay between bundle elastic degrees of freedom and crosslink binding propensity. By slowly driving bundles into a deformed configuration, and depending on the mechanical stiffness of the crosslinking agent, the binding affinity is shown to display a sudden and discontinuous drop. This indicates a cooperative unbinding process that involves the c...

A crosslinker anchoring process was developed to synthesize Fe(3)O(4)/NaYF(4):Yb,Er hetero-nanoparticles (NPs) with dual properties of superparamagnetism and upconversion (UC) emission. After ligand ozonolysis treatment, these NPs could be well dispersed in water.