LIFE SCIENCES

Using the simulation capabilities of GCS’s HPC environment, scientists of the Technische Universität München are doing research on novel single-molecule manipulation techniques in biophysics and bionanotechnology. The main goal of the project is to analyse the dynamics of the DNA macromolecule exposed to hydrodynamic flow and complex DNA-liquid interactions by numerical simulations. A newly developed mesoscopic modelling approach called the smoothed dissipative particle dynamics (SDPD) method has been used. It was confirmed that the behaviour of tethered DNA, for example the near wall configuration of tethered DNS as shown in the figure, is mainly determined by the Weissenberg number, which is the ratio between the DNA relaxation time and the flow rate. The results achieved show that a simple shear flow can lead to complex, dynamic behaviour in interactions with tethered DNA, which can be exploited in biotechnical applications.