New insight into cataract formation: enhanced stability through mutual attraction
- Stradner, Anna Physics Department and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
- Foffi, G. Institut Romand de Recherche Numérique en Physique des Matériaux (IRRMA) and Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Dorsaz, N. Institut Romand de Recherche Numérique en Physique des Matériaux (IRRMA) and Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Thurston, G. Department of Physics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York , USA
- Schurtenberger, Peter Physics Department and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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09.11.2007
Published in:
- Physical Review Letters. - 2007, vol. 99, no. 19, p. 198103
English
Small-angle neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations combined with an application of concepts from soft matter physics to complex protein mixtures provide new insight into the stability of eye lens protein mixtures. Exploring this colloid-protein analogy we demonstrate that weak attractions between unlike proteins help to maintain lens transparency in an extremely sensitive and nonmonotonic manner. These results not only represent an important step towards a better understanding of protein condensation diseases such as cataract formation, but provide general guidelines for tuning the stability of colloid mixtures, a topic relevant for soft matter physics and industrial applications.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Département de Physique
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Physics
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 8929
- DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.198103
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/300600
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