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Home » Research groups » Computational Soft Matter Research Group

 

Computational Soft Matter Research Group

Group leader: Dr. Emppu Salonen

Overview

Soft matter refers to systems whose behaviour is governed by interactions of the order of the thermal energy k_BT. Such systems include biological matter, colloids, surfactants, liquid crystals, and polymer solutions and melts. All these system are characterized by a delicate interplay of entropy with various non-covalent interactions. This leads to a rich variety of phenomena in soft matter systems: self-assembly, complex phase behaviour and, most importantly, life.
 
Our group's research interests range from the interaction of drugs and exogenous nanomaterials with biological matter to electrokinetic manipulation of bioparticles (e.g., cells, DNA). We focus on computational studies of these systems with the central aim that our research is directly linked to experiments. To this end, we are actively collaborating with leading experimental research groups in the field.
 
We also promote researcher training in our field by organizing related courses for undergraduate and doctoral students at TKK, at present Tfy-0.3252 Soft Matter Physics.

 

News

• November 4, 2009. Praveen was granted a position in the National Graduate School in Materials Physics (NGSMP). Congratulations!
• October 23, 2009. We will organize, together with CSC, the Finnish IT center for science, an international workshop on coarse-grained biomolecular modeling (Levi, Finland, March 7-12, 2010). The registration is now open.
• October 15, 2009. Dr. Jirasak Wong-ekkabut from the group of Prof. Mikko Karttunen (University of Western Ontario, Canada) is visiting us Oct 15-Nov 3.
• September 15, 2009. Dr. Xiang Gu (University of Southern Florida) is visiting us Sep 15-20.
• August 27, 2009. Hanne, Jaakko and Jarkko presented their summer student seminar talks. They will continue to work in the group as part-time research assistants.
• June 9, 2009. Emppu will give a talk in the International Conference on the Environmental Implications and Applications of Nanotechnology (UMass Amherst, June 9-11).
• June 4, 2009. Emppu is visiting Prof. Pu-Chun Ke (Clemson University), June 4-8.

Older events (2008-2009)

SOFT/BIO group meetings

 

Recent publication highlights

Below are some highlights of our recent research. For our full list of publications, follow the link at the top of the page.

• Effects of carbon nanoparticles on lipid membranes: A molecular simulation perspective,
  L. Monticelli, E. Salonen, P.C. Ke, and I. Vattulainen
  Soft Matter 5 (2009) 4433. [Online]
• Experimental and simulation studies of real-time polymerase chain reaction in the presence of a fullerene derivative,
  J. Shang, T. A. Ratnikova, S. Anttalainen, E. Salonen, P.C. Ke, and H. T. Knap,
  Nanotechnology 41 (2009) 415101. [Online]
• Real-time translocation of fullerene reveals cell contraction,
  E. Salonen, S. Lin, M.L Reid, M.S. Allegood, X. Wang, A.M. Rao, I. Vattulainen, and P.C. Ke,
  Small 4 (2008) 1986.   [Online]
• Enhanced dielectrophoresis of nanocolloids by dimer formation,
  E. Salonen, E. Terama, I. Vattulainen, and M. Karttunen,
  Europhys. Lett. 78 (2007) 48004.
  [Online]   [Preprint]