Publications de Alberto Stefano Sassi

Efficient conversion of chemical energy into mechanical work by Hsp70 chaperones

Paolo De Los Rios, Alessandro Barducci, Alberto Stefano Sassi, Salvatore Assenza

Hsp70 molecular chaperones are abundant ATP-dependent nanomachines that actively reshape non-native, misfolded proteins and assist a wide variety of essential cellular processes. Here, we combine complementary theoretical approaches to elucidate the struct ...

2019

Chaperones convert the energy from ATP into the nonequilibrium stabilization of native proteins

Paolo De Los Rios, Alessandro Barducci, Pierre Goloubinoff, Bruno Claude Daniel Fauvet, Alberto Stefano Sassi

During and after protein translation, molecular chaperones require ATP hydrolysis to favor the native folding of their substrates and, under stress, to avoid aggregation and revert misfolding. Why do some chaperones need ATP, and what are the consequences ...

2018

Non equilibrium thermodynamics of protein organization

Alberto Stefano Sassi

Three quarters of the thesis will be devoted to the discussion of non equilibrium systems. We show how certain biological systems cannot be described by standard thermodynamics. The reason is that the energy consumption due to the hydrolysis of ATP imposes ...

EPFL2018

The Shape of a Stretched Polymer

Paolo De Los Rios, Salvatore Assenza, Alberto Stefano Sassi

The shape of a polymer plays an important role in determining its interactions with other molecules and with the environment, and is in turn affected by both of them. As a consequence, in the literature the shape properties of a chain in many different con ...

2017

Molecular chaperones inject energy from ATP hydrolysis into the non-equilibrium stabilisation of native proteins

Paolo De Los Rios, Alessandro Barducci, Alberto Stefano Sassi, Pierre Goloubinoff, Bruno Claude Daniel Fauvet

Protein homeostasis, namely the ensemble of cellular mechanisms collectively controlling the activity, stability and conformational states of proteins, depends on energy-consuming processes. De novo protein synthesis requires ATP hydrolysis for peptide bon ...

2017