Our work on the biophysics of DNA in the past has lead to two important review papers on this subject. The first one describes the elastic properties of DNA, in particular to the status of the Euler-Kirchhoff theory of elastic filaments applied to DNA of different lengths. The second one describes the state-of-the-art in the biophysics of complexes of DNA with lipids and polyelectrolytes. These complexes are of utmost importance for gene therapy, and a proper understanding of their biophysical properties leads to a more successful formulation of their composition.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1981540
The three-body contribution to the electrostatic interaction in a system comprised of three colloids in a suspension was measured. The three-body terms are comparable in range and magnitude to pair interactions. Further studies on the four-body terms have confirmed that the many-body expansion of screened electrostatic interactions converges poorly. This was the first system where three-body interactions have been determined directly. The work has contributed substantially to the understanding of many-body interactions and of the electrostatic interactions in colloidal suspensions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 18151463
Liquid crystals made of complex molecules form a variety of complex phases. We have shown that the main driving mechanism for the formation of complex structures are local intermolecular interactions. Thus we have explained the labyrinth formation in free-standing films and modulation due to the coupling between the divergence of the polarization and the tilt of the molecules, which is a consequence of the chiral symmetry breaking. We have developed a model for the reconstruction of electron density from X-ray measurements, which enables a direct comparison of theory and experiment.
COBISS.SI-ID: 14311688
Based on the idea that cell processes have evolved from the phenomena that are characteristic of membranes themselves, we developed a model of vesicle self-reproduction. We studied the conditions needed for an initially spherical vesicle to transform into a budded shape consisting of two spheres. The necessary condition for self-replication, which depends on the mechanical properties of the membrane and its hydraulic permeability, represents a possible basis of the selection mechanism: vesicles which fulfill this condition and have the shortest doubling time will outnumber all other vesicles.
COBISS.SI-ID: 18573017
We studied theoretically the morphology of aggregates of lipid vesicles, which was poorly understood so far. We showed that in the weak adhesion regime, the contact zone between two vesicles is flat and the doublet is axisymmetric. However, in the strong adhesion regime the contact zone is sigmoidal. We used the same methodology to analyze the stability diagram of two-dimensional vesicles, which represent the en-face cross-section of simple layered tissues such as endothelia. These results contribute considerably to the development of physical models of biological tissues.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22325721