Claire Loison

Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 | UCBL · Institut lumière matière

Second harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where two photons at the frequency ω combine to form a single photon at the second-harmonic frequency 2ω. Since that second-order process is very weak in bulk isotropic media, optical SHG responses of interfaces provide a powerful and versatile technique to probe the molecular struc...

Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods are interesting to model the impact of a complex environment on the spectroscopic properties of a molecule. In this context, a FROm molecular dynamics to second harmonic Generation (FROG) code is a tool to exploit molecular dynamics trajectories to perform QM/MM calculations of molecular optica...

Second harmonic scattering (SHS) is a method of choice to investigate the molecular structure of liquids. While a clear interpretation of SHS intensity exists for diluted solutions of dyes, the scattering due to solvents remains difficult to interpret quantitatively. Here, we report a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) approach to model...

Numerous collagen mimetic peptides (CMPs) have been engineered using proline derivatives substituted at their C(3) and/or C(4) position in order to stabilize or functionalize collagen triple-helix mimics. However, no example has been reported so far with C(5) substitutions. Here, we introduce a fluorinated CMP incorporating trifluoromethyl groups a...

HSP90 are abundant molecular chaperones, assisting the folding of several hundred client proteins, including substrates involved in tumor growth or neurodegenerative diseases. A complex set of large ATP-driven structural changes occurs during HSP90 functional cycle. However, the existence of such structural rearrangements in apo HSP90 has remained...

Numerous Collagen Model Peptides (CMPs) have been engineered using proline derivatives substituted at their C(3) and/or C(4) position in order to stabilize or to functionalize collagen triple helix mimics. However, no example has been reported so far with C(5) substitutions. Here, we introduce a fluorinated CMP incorporating trifluoromethyl groups...

The molecular first hyperpolarizability β contributes to second-order optical non-linear signals collected from molecular liquids. For the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) response, the first hyperpolarizability β(2ω, ω, ω) often depends on the molecular electrostatic environment. This is especially true for water, due to its large second hyperpola...

HSP90 are abundant molecular chaperones, assisting the folding of several hundred client proteins, including substrates involved in tumor growth or neurodegenerative diseases. A complex set of large ATP-driven structural changes occurs during HSP90 functional cycle. However, the existence of such structural rearrangements in apo HSP90 has remained...

The molecular first hyperpolarizability β contributes to second-order optical non-linear signals collected from molecular liquids. For the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) response, the first hyperpolarizability β (2ω,ω,ω) often depends on the molecular electrostatic environment. This is especially true for water, due to its large second hyperpolar...

Amphiphilic lipid bilayers modify the friction properties of the surfaces on top of which they are deposited. In particular, the measured sliding friction coefficient can be significantly reduced compared with the native surface. We investigate in this work the friction properties of a numerical coarse-grained model of DSPC (1,2-distearoyl-sn-glyce...

Surface Second-Harmonic Generation (S-SHG) experiments provide a unique approach to probe interfaces. One important issue for S-SHG is how to interpret the S-SHG intensities at the molecular level. Established frameworks commonly assume that each molecule emits light according to an average molecular hyperpolarizability tensor β(-2ω,ω,ω). However,...

div>In this article, we investigate the molecular first hyperpolarizability of water molecules nearby the liquid-vapor interface. The hyperpolarizability of each molecule is calculated at the quantum level within an explicit, inhomogeneous electrostatic embedding. We report that the average molecular first hyperpolarizability tensor depends on the...

Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) are a very popular system for the study of bio-mimetic membranes. Understanding of the interactions between the solid substrate and the lipid membrane opens pathways to the design of new materials with fine-tunable properties. While it is possible to study SLBs via Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, difficulties st...

Amphiphilic lipid bilayers modify the friction properties of the surfaces on top of which they are deposited. In particular, the measured sliding friction coefficient is significantly reduced compared with the native surface. We investigate in this work the friction properties of a numerical coarse-grained model of DSPC (1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3...

In a recent study published in this journal, de Jong et al. investigated the efficiency improvement reached thanks to new parameter sets for molecular dynamics simulations using the coarse-grained Martini force-field and its implementation in the Gromacs simulation package (de Jong et al., 2016). The advantages of the new sets are the computational...

Despite the vast amount of experimental and theoretical studies on the binding affinity of cations - especially the biologically relevant Na(+) and Ca(2+) - for phospholipid bilayers, there is no consensus in the literature. Here we show that by interpreting changes in the choline headgroup order parameters according to the 'molecular electrometer'...

Phospholipids are essential building blocks of biological membranes. Despite of vast amount of very accurate experimental data, the atomistic resolution structures sampled by the glycerol backbone and choline headgroup in phoshatidylcholine bilayers are not known. Atomistic resolution molecular dynamics simulations have the potential to resolve the...

Although the key role of lipid bilayer stacks in biological lubrication is generally accepted, the mechanisms underlying their extreme efficiency remain elusive. In this article, we report molecular dynamics simulations of lipid bilayer stacks undergoing load and shear. When the hydration level is reduced, the velocity accommodation mechanism chang...

Prodiginine molecules (prodigiosin and obatoclax) are well-known pH-chromic dyes with promising anti-tumor activities. They present multiple tautomeric and rotameric forms. The protonation state and the structure of such flexible ligands in interaction with a protein is crucial to understand and to model the protein biological activities. The deter...

The friction between two rubbing surfaces lubricated by water can be diminished if they are coated with phospholipidic bilayers or brushes of polyelectrolytes. In the case of a coating by lipid membranes, the friction is lower when the lipids are in the gel phase rather than in the liquid phase. We investigated the response of fluid or gel bilayers...

Monolayers of the lipopeptide mycosubtilin are studied at the air/water interface. Their structure is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. All-atom models suggest that the lipopeptide is flexible and aggregates at the interface. To achieve simulation times of several microseconds, a coarse-grained (CG) model based on the MARTINI force...

The second harmonic generation (SHG) response at the air-water interface from the tyrosine-containing natural iturinic cyclo-lipopeptides mycosubtilin, iturin A and bacillomycin D is reported. It is shown that this response is dominated by the single tyrosine residue present in these molecules owing to the large first hyperpolarizability arising fr...

The use of visible absorbing and fluorescent tags for sensing and structural analysis of carbohydrates is a promising route in a variety of medical, diagnostic, and therapeutic contexts. Here we report an easy method for covalent attachment of nonfluorescent push-pull chromophores based on the 4-cyano-5-dicyanomethylene-2-oxo-3-pyrroline ring to ca...

A valence instability of Eu in EuPd3Bx (0≤x≤1) was discussed controversially in the past. In a joint theoretical and experimental study we investigate a large series of EuPd3Bx and GdPd3Bx compounds. Characterization by x-ray diffraction, metallography, energy-, and wavelength-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy as well as chemical analysis determine...

The crystalline and electronic structures of CaSi2 under high-pressure are very similar to those of MgB2. As CaSi2 has two more valence electrons than MgB2, the highest occupied σσ band is bonding for MgB2 and antibonding in CaSi2. We investigated whether high-pressure CaSi2 superconductivity is similar to that in MgB2, with a large electron–phonon...

Second harmonic generation (SHG) spectrometry has been recently applied to investigate the structure of proteins and sugars (collagen, myosin, starch, etc.). The interpretation of experimental data at the molecular length-scale remains often qualitative because of the difficulty to model the SHG signal of such large molecules. Simpson and co-worker...

Collagen is characterized by triple helical domains and plays a central role in the formation of fibrillar and microfibrillar networks, basement membranes, as well as other structures of the connective tissue. Remarkably, fibrillar collagen exhibits efficient Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) and SHG microscopy proved to be a sensitive tool to score...

Collagen is the major protein of the extracellular matrix and plays a central role in the formation of fibrillar and microfibrillar networks, basement membranes, as well as other structures of the connective tissue. As a fundamental brick of the architecture of tissues, it guarantees organs functioning and is crucial in the adaptative response to v...

We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of the photoabsorption and photodissociation behavior of crystal violet, that is, the tris[p-(dimethylamino)phenyl]methyl cation. The photodissociation spectra of isolated and microsolvated crystal violet have been measured. A single band is observed for the bare cation. This is in good agreemen...

A novel subclass of frustrated undoped edge-shared CuO2 chain materials with intriguing magnetism is briefly reviewed. These cuprates show at low temperature a tendency to helicoidal magnetic ordering with acute pitches and in some cases also to weak ferromagnetism. In our analysis we focus on our recent theoretical and experimental studies on Na(...

The electronic structure and the theoretical lattice parameters for the intermetallic antiperovskites RPd3B (R from La to Yb) are calculated within the density-functional theory using the LSDA+U functional (LSDA is local spin density approximation) to include strong electronic correlations at the R site. Exemplarily, the electronic structure of LaP...

Zero-field susceptibility and specific heat of Pb[Cu(SO4)(OH)2] (linarite) single crystal were measured. In order to verify that linarite is a quasi-one-dimensional system with competing nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour in-chain exchange interaction (J1 ≈ –30 K, J2 ≈ 15 K), theoretical results based on electronic structure calculations...

We review recent molecular dynamics simulations of thermally activated undulations and defects in the lamellar Lα phase of a binary amphiphile-solvent mixture, using an idealized molecular coarse-grained model: Solvent particles are represented by beads, and amphiphiles by bead-and-spring tetramers. We find that our results are in excellent agreeme...

We review recent molecular dynamics simulations of thermally activated undulations and defects in the lamellar $L_\alpha$ phase of a binary amphiphile-solvent mixture, using an idealized molecular coarse-grained model: Solvent particles are represented by beads, and amphiphiles by bead-and-spring tetramers. We find that our results are in excellent...

We investigate pores in fluid membranes by molecular dynamics simulations of an amphiphile-solvent mixture, using a molecular coarse-grained model. The amphiphilic membranes self-assemble into a lamellar stack of amphiphilic bilayers separated by solvent layers. We focus on the particular case of tension less membranes, in which pores spontaneously...

We investigate pores in fluid membranes by molecular dynamics simulations of an amphiphile-solvent mixture, using a molecular coarse-grained model. The amphiphilic membranes self-assemble into a lamellar stack of amphiphilic bilayers separated by solvent layers. We focus on the particular case of tensionless membranes, in which pores spontaneously...

Computer simulations of coarse-grained molecular models for amphiphilic systems can provide insight into the the structure of amphiphiles at interfaces. They can help to identify the factors that determine the phase behavior, and they can bridge between atomic descriptions and phenomenological field theories. Here we focus on model systems for amph...

We investigate thermal fluctuations in a smectic A phase of an amphiphile-solvent mixture with molecular dynamics simulations. We use an idealized model system, where solvent particles are represented by simple beads, and amphiphiles by bead-and-spring tetramers. At a solvent bead fraction of 20 % and sufficiently low temperature, the amphiphiles s...

We investigate thermal fluctuations in a smectic A phase of an amphiphile–solvent mixture with molecular-dynamics simulations. We use an idealized model system, where solvent particles are represented by simple beads, and amphiphiles by bead-and-spring tetramers. At a solvent bead fraction of 20% and sufficiently low temperature, the amphiphiles se...

We investigate pores in uid membranes using molecular dynamics simulations of an amphiphile- solvent mixture. Within our molecular coarse-grained model, these amphiphilic membranes build a lamellar stack of bilayers separated by solvent. The pores spontaneously appear in the bilayers even in the absence of surface tension, because of thermal uctuat...

This thesis deals with the liquid crystalline lamellar phase $L_[alpha]$ built by amphiphilic molecules in aqueous solutions, and its interaction with macromolecules. We perform molecular dynamics simulations to study thermal fluctuations and defects appearing in a stack of parallel amphiphilic bilayers separated by layers of solvent. The idealized...