Principles of Self-Assembly for Particles with Simple Geometries and Complex Interactions

Explore the principles of self-assembly for particles with simple geometries and complex interactions in this comprehensive lecture. Delve into the fascinating world of protein self-assembly in living cells, focusing on how specific surface interactions lead to large-scale functional structures. Examine a model using lattice particles with trivial geometries but highly complex interactions, and discover the stereotypical categories of non-trivial aggregates produced by strongly anisotropic particles. Learn how machine learning techniques can accurately predict aggregation outcomes based on pair interactions favoring periodic un-frustrated arrangements. Investigate the application of numerical real-space renormalization transformation to these stereotypical aggregates. Gain insights into the rich design space of identical particles with complex interactions, potentially inspiring engineered self-assembling nano-objects and enhancing understanding of robust functional protein structures. Explore how local interactions can control the size of spherical or fibrous self-assemblies of identical particles. Finally, consider the potential for systematically identifying conditions in which proteins self-assemble into fibrillar aggregates using X-ray crystallographic scattering measurements.