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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

DNA-magnetic Particle Binding Analysis by Dynamic and Electrophoretic Light Scattering
Published on: November 9, 2017
Electrostatics of strongly charged biological polymers: ion-mediated interactions and self-organization in nucleic
Gerard C L Wong1, Lois Pollack
1Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. gclwong@uiuc.edu
Abstract:
Charges on biological polymers in physiologically relevant solution conditions are strongly screened by water and salt solutions containing counter-ions. However, the entropy of these counterions can result in surprisingly strong interactions between charged objects in water despite short screening lengths, via coupling between osmotic and electrostatic interactions. Widespread work in theory, experiment, and computation has been carried out to gain a fundamental understanding of the rich, yet sometimes counterintuitive, behavior of these polyelectrolyte systems. Examples of polyelectrolyte association in biology include DNA packaging and RNA folding, as well as aggregation and self-organization phenomena in different disease states.
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