Gelation in Soft Matter: from Colloids to Decorated Protein Networks*

Gelation unites many central issue in soft matter: phase transitions, dynamical arrest and self-assembly. Spinodal Gelation the formation of a network during spinodal decomposition has been recognized in colloids and proteins [1,2]. The competition between dynamical arrest and self-assembly has also been exploited in critical soft matter, where fluctuations associated with a non-equilibrium critical point introduce an additional tunable lengthscale [3]. Here we extend these concepts to a new system of fluorescent proteins, to produce multicomponent networks. We tune the structural properties and functional behavior of these decorated protein networks with a variety of soft matter and biochemical techniques [4].


[1] McManus JJ, Charbonneau P, Zaccarelli E. and Asherie N. “The physics of protein self-assembly” Curr. Op. Coll. Interf. Sci. 22 73-79 (2016).

[2] Royall CP and Malins, A. “The role of quench rate in colloidal gels”, Faraday Discuss. 158 301-311 (2012).

[3] Whitelam S, Hedges LO and Schmidt JD “Self-Assembly at a Nonequilibrium Critical Point”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 155504 (2014).

[4] Rios de Anda I, Coutable-Pennarun A, Brasnett C, Whitelam S, Seddon A, Russo J, Anderson JLR and Royall, C. P, “Decorated Protein Networks: Functional Nanomaterials with Tunable Domain Size” ArXiV 1911.05857 (2019).