Unzipping DNA: A Glimpse into its Physics
A research team led by SISSA's Cristian Micheletti has accurately reconstructed the thermodynamics of the formation and rupture of the double-helix structure of DNA by studying how a DNA double helix unzips when translocated at high velocity through a nanopore. The team used a cluster of computers to simulate the process with different driving forces keeping track of the DNA's unzipping speed, a type of data that has rarely been studied despite being directly accessible in experiments. The technique adopted in the study is general, and thus the researchers expect to be able to extend it beyond DNA to other molecular systems that are still relatively unexplored.