The self-assembly of particles into organized structures is a key feature of living organisms and a major engineering challenge. While it may proceed through the binding of perfectly matched, puzzle-pieces-like particles, many other instances involve ill-fitting particles that must deform to fit together. These include some pathological proteins, which have a known propensity to form fibrous aggregates. Despite this observation, the general relationship between the individual characteristics of the particles and the overall structure of the aggregate is not understood. To elucidate it, we analytically and numerically study the self-assembly of two-dimensional, deformable ill-fitting particles. We find that moderately sticky particles tend to form equilibrium self-limited aggregates whose size is set by an elastic boundary layer associated with collective deformations that may extend over many particles. Particles with a soft internal deformation mode thus give rise to large aggregates. Besides, when the particles are incompressible, their aggregates tend to be anisotropic and fiber-like. Our results are preserved in a more complex particle model with randomly chosen elastic properties. This indicates that generic protein characteristics such as allostery and incompressibility could favor the formation of fibers in protein aggregation, and suggests design principles for artificial self-assembling structures.
Topological defect engineering enables size and shape control in self-assembly
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；LPTMS（理论物理实验室）；Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Technical University of Munich（慕尼黑工业大学）；Max Planck School Matter to Life（马克斯·普朗克生命物质学院）；Aix Marseille Université（艾克斯-马赛大学）；CINAM（中子与磁学中心）；Turing Center for Living Systems（图灵生命系统中心）；PMMH（物理化学与分子宏观结构实验室）；ESPCI Paris（巴黎高等物理化工学院）；PSL University（巴黎文理研究大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）
Synthesis, Solvent-dependent Self-Assembly and Partial Oxidation of Ultrathin Cerium Fluoride Nanoplatelets
CNRS, ENS de Lyon（法国国家科学研究中心，里昂高等师范学校）；Université Paris-Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；Institut Lumière Matière, Univ Lyon, CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1（光物质研究所，里昂大学，法国国家科学研究中心，里昂第一大学）；Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS（固体物理实验室，巴黎萨克雷大学，法国国家科学研究中心）
Evaporation-Driven Nanowire Self-Assembly in an Elongated Droplet
Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IET-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich（于利希研究中心埃尔朗根-纽伦堡亥姆霍兹可再生能源研究所）；Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg（埃尔朗根-纽伦堡弗里德里希·亚历山大大学）
Counterfactual rewards promote collective transport using individually controlled swarm microrobots
University of Konstanz（康斯坦茨大学）；Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour（集体行为高级研究中心）；The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)（阿卜杜勒·萨拉姆国际理论物理中心（ICTP））；Area Science Park（区域科学园）
A Central Disulfide Junction Drives Transient Network Formation in Elastin-Like Polypeptides, Enabling Low-Concentration Hydrogels
Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO), UMR 5629, Bordeaux University, CNRS, Bordeaux INP（波尔多大学有机聚合物化学实验室）；Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CRPP), UMR 5031, Bordeaux University, CNRS（波尔多大学保罗·帕斯卡研究中心）；Department of chemistry, Bogazici University（博阿齐奇大学化学系）
