Topological potentials guiding protein self-assembly
Ivan L A Spirandelli, Arnur Nigmetov, Dmitriy Morozov, Myfanwy E Evans, Jianhan Chen, Arne Elofsson, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen · 2026
Read Topological potentials guiding protein self-assembly by Ivan L A Spirandelli, Arnur Nigmetov, Dmitriy Morozov, Myfanwy E Evans, Jianhan Chen, Arne Elofsson, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13577540.txt.
Description
Ivan L A Spirandelli leads a 2026 study adding a shape-based guiding force to simulations of proteins assembling themselves. Simulations of molecular building blocks often get stuck in wrong shapes, since the energy landscape is rugged with many dead ends. Their added force is a long-range potential built from topology, the mathematics of shape, scored by a weighted persistence measure.
The new force works alongside an established solvent energy model based on surface geometry. Across four protein systems, the pair raised assembly success rates by up to sixteen times, and rescued cases that otherwise never assembled. Earlier topology tools only described finished structures; this one steers the search while it runs. Since it depends only on atom positions, the authors say the trick should extend to other self-assembling materials beyond proteins.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ivan L A Spirandelli, Arnur Nigmetov, Dmitriy Morozov, Myfanwy E Evans, Jianhan Chen, Arne Elofsson, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen, Nir Ben-Tal, Jianhan Chen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 77 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC0 |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |