Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Synthetic life-like systems and Origins of Life

BP 26.5: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2025, 10:30–10:45, H46

Cooperative effects in compartmentalized irreversible self-assembly — •Richard Swiderski, Severin Angerpointner, and Erwin Frey — Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

From biomolecular compartments, protein patterns to porous rocks: Many biological and chemical systems like living cells or prebiotic chambers exhibit some form of spatial organization which separates biochemical processes. This is known to play a key role in the assembly of virus capsids or the enrichment of prebiotic chemicals. We systematically explore the effects of such spatial separation on the self-assembly of irreversibly binding identical particles. We show that already in a simplified model of two coupled biochemical compartments cooperative effects emerge through limiting compartment exchange. Further, these findings generalize to spatially extended systems like intracellular chemical gradients or membrane-assisted assembly.

Keywords: Self-assembly; Spatial organization; Biochemical compartments