New Delhi, November 04: Simple models to understand polymer looping processes have been developed by IIT Mandi researchers. These theoretical models will be helpful in understanding the fundamental aspects of end looping mechanism in polymeric systems.
Polymers are ubiquitous in the world – including humans, who are a collection of various types of polymers. All that one eats, touches, feels and uses are polymers of one kind or another.
IIT Mandi research team using theoretical approaches
A research team led by Dr. Aniruddha Chakraborty, who is an Associate Professor at the School of Basic Sciences at IIT Mandi, is working in cutting-edge fields of Quantum and Statistical Mechanics. For understanding complex and critical chemical phenomena, the team uses theoretical approaches. The International Journal, Chemical Physics Letters has published the professor’s recent study.
“Polymers are not all isolated snake-like molecules thrown in together; they are often twisted, interconnected, overlapped and looped together in various forms, which give them their functionalities and uniqueness. Our approach will help us not only understand the importance of looping in biological processes but also assist in the development of nano-devices and molecular machines using polymers,” explained Ms. Moumita Ganguly, who is the corresponding author of Dr. Chakraborty’s paper.
Contacts between ends of long polymers, known as end looping, is mainly rampant and significant to biological polymers. The looping of our genetic polymer, DNA, is imperative to its function as carriers of our blueprint, and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, must loop for serving the functions they are meant to serve.
Speaking on the need to develop easier and more general tools that can predict or explain looping in polymer systems, Ms. Ganguly added, “Modeling the dynamics of such huge molecules using statistical and quantum tools requires extensive computer power.”
Framing simple one-dimensional mathematical model
“Certain chemical reactions happen very fast, within a fraction of a millisecond such that they are almost intractable during an experiment. To be able to see the speed of reactions involving looping, we framed a very simple one-dimensional mathematical model in which simple parameters such as the length of the polymer, the relaxation time and the bond length can provide an idea of the kinetics involved”, Ms. Ganguly further explained.