Speaker: Eleni Panagiotu

Location and Time: AC1 115, 10:50–11:20am

Title: Topological entanglement in biopolymers

Abstract: Many physical systems, such as polymers and biopolymers, consist of filaments whose entanglement significantly affects their mechanical properties and function. Entanglement is related to knot and link complexity. However, physical filaments are not mathematical knots, since they have distinct ends. In this talk we will introduce a novel framework in knot theory that can characterize the complexity of open curves in 3-space in general. We will apply our methods to proteins and show that these enable us to create a new framework for understanding protein folding, which is validated by experimental data. When applied to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, we see that topology can predict residues where mutations can have an important impact on protein structure and possibly in viral transmissibility.