Université de Fribourg

Hydrophobic hydration of poly-N-isopropyl acrylamide: a matter of the mean energetic state of water

Bischofberger, Irmgard ; Calzolari, D. C. E. ; Rios, Paolo De Los ; Jelezarov, I. ; Trappe, Véronique

In: Scientific Reports, 2014, vol. 4, p. -

The enthalpically favoured hydration of hydrophobic entities, termed hydrophobic hydration, impacts the phase behaviour of numerous amphiphiles in water. Here, we show experimental evidence that hydrophobic hydration is strongly determined by the mean energetics of the aqueous medium. We investigate the aggregation and collapse of an amphiphilic polymer, poly-N-isopropyl acrylamide (PNiPAM), in...

Université de Fribourg

Understanding amyloid aggregation by statistical analysis of atomic force microscopy images

Adamcik, Jozef ; Jung, Jin-Mi ; Flakowski, Jérôme ; Rios, Paolo De Los ; Dietler, Giovanni ; Mezzenga, Raffaele

In: Nature Nanotechnology, 2010, vol. 5, p. 423 - 428

The aggregation of proteins is central to many aspects of daily life, including food processing, blood coagulation, eye cataract formation disease and prion-related neurodegenerative infections. However, the physical mechanisms responsible for amyloidosis—the irreversible fibril formation of various proteins that is linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt–Jakob and Huntington's...