Molecular biophysics articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Perspective |

    Quantum computers promise to efficiently predict the structure and behaviour of molecules. This Perspective explores how this could overcome existing challenges in computational drug discovery.

    • Raffaele Santagati
    • , Alan Aspuru-Guzik
    •  & Clemens Utschig-Utschig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Filaments of the FtsZ protein can form chiral assemblies. Now, active matter tools link the microscopic structure of active filaments to the large-scale collective phase of these assemblies.

    • Zuzana Dunajova
    • , Batirtze Prats Mateu
    •  & Martin Loose

  • News & Views |

    Biomolecular condensates compartmentalize and concentrate cellular components without the delimitation of a lipid membrane. The protein VASP is now shown to condense, resulting in the reorganization of actin, a key component of the cell cytoskeleton.

    • Julie Plastino

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    A DNA-binding protein condenses on DNA via a switch-like transition. Surface condensation occurs at preferential DNA locations suggesting collective sequence readout and enabling sequence-specificity robustness with respect to protein concentration.

    • Jose A. Morin
    • , Sina Wittmann
    •  & Stephan W. Grill

  • News & Views |

    Synchronization of biochemical oscillators that are responsible for biological rhythms costs free energy. This theoretical result suggests that part of the adenosine triphosphate molecules consumed by a Kai oscillator is necessary for synchronization.

    • Andre C. Barato

  • Article |

    Modelling and microscopy of thousands of cells together reveal the coupling through which the cell cycle influences the circadian clock. This coupling may explain why mammalian tissues growing at different rates have shifted circadian rhythms.

    • Colas Droin
    • , Eric R. Paquet
    •  & Felix Naef

  • News & Views |

    A curious peak in the distribution describing stochastic switching in bacterial motility had researchers confounded. But a careful study performed under varying mechanical conditions has now revealed that the breaking of detailed balance is to blame.

    • Yuhai Tu

  • Article |

    Certain proteins are capable of self-replicating, including those associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Simulations now pinpoint the adsorption of monomeric proteins onto protein fibril surfaces as the mechanism responsible for self-replication.

    • Anđela Šarić
    • , Alexander K. Buell
    •  & Daan Frenkel

  • Article |

    Cells rely on coherent oscillatory processes, despite being subject to large fluctuations from their environment. Simple motifs found in all oscillatory systems are studied to determine the thermodynamic cost of maintaining this coherence.

    • Yuansheng Cao
    • , Hongli Wang
    •  & Yuhai Tu

  • Article |

    There is growing evidence that quantum coherence enhances energy transfer through individual photosynthetic light-harvesting protein complexes. This idea is now extended to complicated networks of such proteins and chemical reaction centres. A mathematical analysis reveals that coherence lengths up to 5 nm are possible.

    • A. K. Ringsmuth
    • , G. J. Milburn
    •  & T. M. Stace

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