Sara Catalini
YOU?
Author Swipe
View article: Probing Residual Water in G-Quadruplex Structures through Molecular Vibrations
Probing Residual Water in G-Quadruplex Structures through Molecular Vibrations Open
G-quadruplexes (GQs), noncanonical DNA structures involved in gene regulation and genome stability, exhibit a high structural polymorphism that is strongly modulated by their solvation environment. Here we employ a dual-spectroscopy approa…
View article: Self-assembly of boc-protected diphenylalanine functionalized with boron-dipyrromethane
Self-assembly of boc-protected diphenylalanine functionalized with boron-dipyrromethane Open
Peptides functionalized with fluorescent dyes can form aggregated structures that show potential for photonic and/or theranostic applications. In this study, we used the good-bad solvent method to induce the self-assembly of chromopeptides…
View article: Water-peptide interactions in presence of a ionic liquid. A structural study of a glutathione-water-BMIMI ternary solution
Water-peptide interactions in presence of a ionic liquid. A structural study of a glutathione-water-BMIMI ternary solution Open
Peptides, often used as simplified models of proteins due to shared structural and functional elements, play an essential role in many fundamental physiological and biochemical processes. In these regards, peptide-solvent interaction is an…
View article: Protein Crowding Effects on Hydration Water Dynamics
Protein Crowding Effects on Hydration Water Dynamics Open
We propose a time-resolved optical Kerr effect study of the structural and vibrational dynamics of the hydration water surrounding the lysozyme on a very fast time scale. Measurements as a function of lysozyme concentration make it possibl…
View article: Hindered intermolecular stacking of anti-parallel telomeric G-quadruplexes
Hindered intermolecular stacking of anti-parallel telomeric G-quadruplexes Open
Telomeric G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non-canonical DNA structures composed of TTAGGG repeats. They are extensively studied both as biomolecules key for genome stability and as promising building blocks and functional elements in synthetic bi…
View article: Protein crowding effects on hydration water dynamics
Protein crowding effects on hydration water dynamics Open
Water is not only a solvent in which biological molecules are dissolved, but it also plays an essential and active role in the proper development of biological processes within living organism. Water hydration shell surrounds biomolecules …
View article: Molecular mechanisms behind BRACO19 and human telomeric G-quadruplex interaction
Molecular mechanisms behind BRACO19 and human telomeric G-quadruplex interaction Open
Human telomeres (HTs) can form DNA G-quadruplex (G4), an attractive target for anticancer and antiviral drugs. HT-G4s exhibit inherent structural polymorphism, posing challenges for understanding their specific recognition by ligands. Here…
View article: Multiple length-scale control of Boc-protected diphenylalanine aggregates through solvent composition
Multiple length-scale control of Boc-protected diphenylalanine aggregates through solvent composition Open
Self-aggregation of Boc-protected diphenylalanine towards the formation of architectures with morphology and structure highly dependent on the acetonitrile-water percentage.
View article: BGO relaxation dynamics probed with heterodyne detected optical transient gratings
BGO relaxation dynamics probed with heterodyne detected optical transient gratings Open
We used optical laser pulses to create transient gratings (TGs) with sub-10 μm spatial periodicity in a Bismuth Germanate (310) (Bi4Ge3O12) single crystal at room temperature. The TG launches phonon modes, whose dynamics were revealed via …
View article: Water–lipid interface in lipidic mesophases with excess water
Water–lipid interface in lipidic mesophases with excess water Open
We study the influence of excess water on the phase transition of lipidic mesophases from the cubic to reverse hexagonal phase. Excess water permeates the interface and forms additional hydrogen bonds with lipids, accelerating the lipid dy…
View article: Amyloidogenic and non-amyloidogenic molten globule conformation of β-lactoglobulin in self-crowded regime
Amyloidogenic and non-amyloidogenic molten globule conformation of β-lactoglobulin in self-crowded regime Open
Molecular insights on the β-lactoglobulin thermal unfolding and aggregation are derived from FTIR and UV Resonance Raman (UVRR) investigations. We propose an in situ and in real-time approach that thanks to the identification of specific s…
View article: Probing Water State during Lipidic Mesophases Phase Transitions
Probing Water State during Lipidic Mesophases Phase Transitions Open
We investigate the static and dynamic states of water network during the phase transitions from double gyroid ( ) to double diamond ( ) bicontinuous cubic phases and from the latter to the reverse hexagonal ( H II ) phase in monolinolein b…
View article: Probing Water State during Lipidic Mesophases Phase Transitions
Probing Water State during Lipidic Mesophases Phase Transitions Open
We investigate the static and dynamic states of water network during the phase transitions from double gyroid ( ) to double diamond ( ) bicontinuous cubic phases and from the latter to the reverse hexagonal ( H II ) phase in monolinolein b…
View article: Hydrogen Bonding and Solvation of a Proline-Based Peptide Model in Salt Solutions
Hydrogen Bonding and Solvation of a Proline-Based Peptide Model in Salt Solutions Open
The hydrogen bonding of water and water/salt mixtures around the proline-based tripeptide model glycyl-l-prolyl-glycinamide·HCl (GPG-NH2) is investigated here by multi-wavelength UV resonance Raman spectroscopy (UVRR) to clarify the role o…
View article: Amyloid Self-Assembly of Lysozyme in Self-Crowded Conditions: The Formation of a Protein Oligomer Hydrogel
Amyloid Self-Assembly of Lysozyme in Self-Crowded Conditions: The Formation of a Protein Oligomer Hydrogel Open
A method is designed to quickly form protein hydrogels, based on the self-assembly of highly concentrated lysozyme solutions in acidic conditions. Their properties can be easily modulated by selecting the curing temperature. Molecular insi…
View article: Linear and Non-Linear Middle Infrared Spectra of Penicillin G in the CO Stretching Mode Region
Linear and Non-Linear Middle Infrared Spectra of Penicillin G in the CO Stretching Mode Region Open
In this work we report the linear and non-linear IR spectral response characterization of the CO bonds of PenicillinG sodium salt in D2O and in DMSO−d6 solutions. In order to better characterize the spectral IR features in the CO stretchin…
View article: Insight into the thermal stability of DNA in hydrated ionic liquids from multi-wavelength UV resonance Raman experiments
Insight into the thermal stability of DNA in hydrated ionic liquids from multi-wavelength UV resonance Raman experiments Open
Preferential interactions between the imidazolium cations of ionic liquids and the guanine residues in the DNA groove lead to more effective stacking between the guanine bases even at high temperatures, thus favoring the thermal stability …
View article: Element- and enantiomer-selective visualization of ibuprofen dimer vibrations
Element- and enantiomer-selective visualization of ibuprofen dimer vibrations Open
In chemistry, biology and materials science, the ability to access interatomic interactions and their dynamical evolution has become possible with the advent of femtosecond lasers. In particular, the observation of vibrational wave packets…
View article: Probing Globular Protein Self-Assembling Dynamics by Heterodyne Transient Grating Experiments
Probing Globular Protein Self-Assembling Dynamics by Heterodyne Transient Grating Experiments Open
In this work, we studied the propagation of ultrasonic waves of lysozyme solutions characterized by different degrees of aggregation and networking. The experimental investigation was performed by means of the transient grating (TG) spectr…
View article: Probing Globular Proteins Self-Assembling Dynamics by Heterodyne Transient Grating Experiments
Probing Globular Proteins Self-Assembling Dynamics by Heterodyne Transient Grating Experiments Open
In this work, we have studied the propagation of ultrasonic waves of lysozyme solutions characterized by different degrees of aggregation and networking. The experimental investigation has been performed by means of the Transient Grating (…