Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 11: Focus Session: Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics of Small Systems

DY 11.3: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:00–11:30, HÜL 186

Recent progress in fluctuation theorems and free energy recovery — •Felix Ritort — Departament de Fisica Fonamental, Facultat de Fisica, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)

Recent developments in micro and nanotechnologies enable the manipulation of single molecules one at a time. Single molecule experiments make possible to resolve energy processes with unprecedented detail at the level of 1 kT, the typical energy scale of Brownian fluctuations.* Fluctuation theorems establish relations governing energy exchange processes at this level and provide a new methodology to obtain equilibrium information from non-equilibrium experiments. In this talk I will show applications to free energy recovery* in single molecule experiments obtained in our laboratory (Small biosystems lab, Barcelona, Spain) in unzipping experiments carried out on DNA, RNA and proteins. The range of applications covers free energy recovery of molecular native states, intermediate states and misfolded states. I will also show how fluctuation relations can be applied to recover base pairing free energies in RNA, essential to improve free energy prediction of RNA secondary structures.