Title: A Hierarchical Description of Proteins: Thermodynamics, Critical, and Motor Properties
Speaker: Professor Mogens H. Jensen
Speaker Info: The Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
Brief Description:
Special Note: jointly with Department of Physics (Condensed Matter seminar)
Abstract:
We propose a protein model based on a hierarchy of constraints that force the protein to follow certain pathways when changing conformation. The model exhibits a first order phase transition, cooperativity and is exactly solvable. We extend the model to explicitly take into account the coupling between the protein and water degrees of freedom. In a statistical mechanics treatment we obtain both the cold and the warm unfolding transitions (both are first order) and we reproduce qualitatively the known thermodynamics of proteins. We argue that the two transitions end in a critical point at a given temperature and chemical potential of the surrounding water. We investigate the properties of this point and find critical properties which define a new universality class.Date: Thursday, January 27, 2000A. Hansen, M.H. Jensen, K. Sneppen and G. Zocchi, Eur. Journ. Phys B 6, 157 (1998); Eur. Journ. Phys B, 10, 193 (1999).