K. Larsson – författare

This book presents new mathematics for the description of structure and dynamics in molecular and cellular biology. On an exponential scale it is possible to combine functions describing inner organisation, including finite periodicity, with functions for outside morphology into a complete definition of structure. This mathematics is particularly fruitful to apply at molecular and atomic distances. The structure descriptions can then be related to atomic and molecular forces and provide information on structural mechanisms. The calculations have been focussed on lipid membranes forming the surface layers of cell organelles. Calculated surfaces represent the mid-surface of the lipid bilayer. Membrane dynamics such as vesicle transport are described in this new language. Periodic membrane assemblies exhibit conformations based on the standing wave oscillations of the bilayer, considered to reflect the true dynamic nature of periodic membrane structures. As an illustration the structure of an endoplasmatic reticulum has been calculated. The transformation of such cell membrane assemblies into cubosomes seems to reflect a transition into vegetative states. The organisation of the lipid bilayer of nerve cells is analyzed, taking into account an earlier observed lipid bilayer phase transition associated with the depolarisation of the membrane. Evidence is given for a new structure of the alveolar surface, relating the mathematical surface defining the bilayer organisation to new experimental data. The surface layer is proposed to consist of a coherent phase, consisting of a lipid-protein bilayer curved according to a classical surface - the CLP surface. Without employing this new mathematics it would not be possible to give an analytical description of this structure and its deformation during the respiration cycle. In more general terms this mathematics is applied to the description of the structure and dynamic properties of motor proteins, cytoskeleton proteins, and RNA/DNA. On a macroscopic scale the motions of cilia, sperm and flagella are modelled. This mathematical description of biological structure and dynamics, biomathematics, also provides significant new information in order to understand the mechanisms governing shape of living organisms.

This book develops the thesis that structure and function in a variety of condensed systems - from the atomic assemblies in inorganic frameworks and organic molecules, through molecular self-assemblies to proteins - can be unified when curvature and surface geometry are taken together with molecular shape and forces. An astonishing variety of synthetic and biological assemblies can be accurately modelled and understood in terms of hyperbolic surfaces, whose richness and beauty are only now being revealed by applied mathematicians, physicists, chemists and crystallographers. These surfaces, often close to periodic minimal surfaces, weave and twist through space, carving out interconnected labyrinths whose range of topologies and symmetries challenge the imaginative powers.The book offers an overview of these structures and structural transformations, convincingly demonstrating their ubiquity in covalent frameworks from zeolites used for cracking oil and pollution control to enzymes and structural proteins, thermotropic and lyotropic bicontinuous mesophases formed by surfactants, detergents and lipids, synthetic block copolymer and protein networks, as well as biological cell assemblies, from muscles to membranes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The relation between structure and function is analysed in terms of the previously neglected hidden variables of curvature and topology. Thus, the catalytic activity of zeolites and enzymes, the superior material properties of interpenetrating networks in microstructured polymer composites, the transport requirements in cells, the transmission of nerve signals and the folding of DNA can be more easily understood in the light of this.The text is liberally sprinkled with figures and colour plates, making it accessible to both the beginning graduate student and researchers in condensed matter physics and chemistry, mineralogists, crystallographers and biologists.

This book presents new mathematics for the description of structure and dynamics in molecular and cellular biology. On an exponential scale it is possible to combine functions describing inner organisation, including finite periodicity, with functions for outside morphology into a complete definition of structure. This mathematics is particularly fruitful to apply at molecular and atomic distances. The structure descriptions can then be related to atomic and molecular forces and provide information on structural mechanisms. The calculations have been focussed on lipid membranes forming the surface layers of cell organelles. Calculated surfaces represent the mid-surface of the lipid bilayer. Membrane dynamics such as vesicle transport are described in this new language. Periodic membrane assemblies exhibit conformations based on the standing wave oscillations of the bilayer, considered to reflect the true dynamic nature of periodic membrane structures. As an illustration the structure of an endoplasmatic reticulum has been calculated. The transformation of such cell membrane assemblies into cubosomes seems to reflect a transition into vegetative states. The organisation of the lipid bilayer of nerve cells is analyzed, taking into account an earlier observed lipid bilayer phase transition associated with the depolarisation of the membrane. Evidence is given for a new structure of the alveolar surface, relating the mathematical surface defining the bilayer organisation to new experimental data. The surface layer is proposed to consist of a coherent phase, consisting of a lipid-protein bilayer curved according to a classical surface - the CLP surface. Without employing this new mathematics it would not be possible to give an analytical description of this structure and its deformation during the respiration cycle. In more general terms this mathematics is applied to the description of the structure and dynamic properties of motor proteins, cytoskeleton proteins, and RNA/DNA. On a macroscopic scale the motions of cilia, sperm and flagella are modelled. This mathematical description of biological structure and dynamics, biomathematics, also provides significant new information in order to understand the mechanisms governing shape of living organisms.