Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research Dresden

Theory, experiments and computer simulation of star-PEG-heparin polyelectrolyte hydrogels

• Synthesis and physical characterization of biohybrid hydrogels, esp. swelling degree and storage modulus
• Simulation of network formation using the bond fluctuation model and characterisation of the resulting structure (defect density, swelling behavior)
• Comparison of static and dynamic properties, especially swelling behavior, relaxation time with theoretical predictions

Theory and computer simulation of DNA-segregation in eukaryotes and prokaryotes

• Simulations of different species, esp. linear or ring polymers, under topological constraints such as cylindrical confinement as a model of prokaryotic DNA during replication
• Modeling of chromatin segregation during the cell cycle in eukaryotes under the effect of SMC-proteins with the bond fluctuation model
• Investigations on different models of condensin during the segregation process of sister chromatids and the influence of internal structure
• Comparison of static and dynamic properties of the resulting structures with mean-field predictions and scaling theory

I'm the programmer of the application JBFM for simulating and educational purpose. It implements the bond-fluctuation-model in pure Java and runs on different architectures and operating system and even within a web browser. As default a grafical user interface, live-3D- output, different types of polymers starting configurations and calculation/representation of observables are implemented.