Research Topics

Characterization of membrane proteins through coarse-grained models.

It concerns the creation of effective models in describing the lipid membrane, and the membrane proteins immersed in it. The idea is to study collective effects related to having demixing transitions between different types of lipids, and due to the presence of external fields that can alter the conformation of the proteins themselves.

Study of various models of active matter in the context of statistical mechanics.

These are models in which individual particles possess an additional self-propelling force that can represent, for example, the autonomous motion of bacteria. These models represent a new paradigm in out-of-equilibrium statistical mechanics, as they lead to aggregation properties and dynamics absent in systems at equilibrium. I am interested in characterising phase diagrams and dynamical properties within the statistical mechanics group activities.

Study of topological effects in the context of biopolymer (DNA and RNA) manipulation.

One seeks to study the impact of different topologies naturally occurring in biological polymers such as DNA and RNA in situations compatible with experiments or in vivo processing, such as translocation in narrow channels. I use coarse-grained models such as oxDNA for these simulations.