Conveners
T1-8 Topics in medical physics and biophysics (DPMB) | Sujets en physique médicale et biophysique (DPMB)
- Francis Lin
- Emily Heath
There is a particular interest to improve the characterization of the bitterness of beer which is derived primarily from the addition of the annual flowers (cones) of the perennial climbing vine Humulus lupulus, better known as common hops. The hops cones contain important acids called humulones. During the brewing process, the humulones are thermally isomerized into isohumulones which are...
Collagen, the most abundant protein in mammalian organisms, is responsible for the cohesion of tissues and organs. It is a major structural component of our extracellular matrix, contributing to the mechanical stability, organization, and shape of a wide variety of tissues. Many collagen types have been reported in humans, all of which are triple-helical proteins that assemble into distinct...
High atomic number nanomaterials have been explored as a tool for improving cancer therapeutics. Gold nanoparticles are a system that has been introduced as they can act as effective radiation dose enhancers and anticancer drug carries. Gold nanoparticles have unique physiochemical properties that allow them to be probed in cells using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and hyper...
In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (MD) patients, muscle fiber Na+-loading is linked to cytotoxic swelling. Quiescent fibers move away from their resting membrane potential Vrest (and towards Donnan equilibrium) due to concurrently open Na+ and Cl- conductances that together underlie the swelling and depolarization. Since a chloride conductance (ClC-1) underlies healthy Vrest in fibers, ...
One of the outstanding questions in protein folding is why the folding into some native state topologies, e.g. all-$\alpha$ folds, are more sensitive to sequence variations than other, more nonlocal protein folds, such as all-$\beta$ folds? To explore this question, we design and study three 35-54 amino acid sequences within a coarse-grained sequence-based model and show that they fold...
Lattice Monte Carlo (LMC) methods are frequently used to model drug delivery systems. In a typical case, the drug, initially encapsulated in a porous material (e.g., a hydrogel), is released via two processes: (i) disintegration of the material and (ii) diffusive escape. One way to control diffusive release is to design layered materials with regions that have different porosities. However,...
Collagen is the most abundant protein in vertebrates and plays a crucial role for the integrity of stress-bearing tissues, such as tendon and cartilage. All collagen types consist of three α chains, which are coiled about each other into a right-handed triple helix. It is well known that in vivo collagens’ mechanical properties provide stability and structure to tissues under a wide range of...
Sphingolipids constitute a significant fraction of cellular plasma membrane lipid content. Among sphingolipids, ceramide levels are usually very low. However, in some cell processes like apoptosis, cell membrane ceramide levels increase markedly due to activation of enzymes like sphingomyelinase. This increase can alter membrane fluidity. Increased molecular order and solid ordered (So) phase...
