Frustrated Self-Assembly – FruSA

Self-assembly is a key feature of living cells, which organize their basic components into complex machines based on their mutual interactions. Most of the time, it brings well-adjusted parts together into functional structures such as the ribosome or viral capsids. In other cases however, objects that are not optimized by evolution to fit nicely self-assemble nonetheless, leading, e.g., to protein-aggregation diseases. While functional self-assembly has attracted increasing attention due to rapid progress in nanofabrication, the basic physical principles underpinning the assembly of ill-fitting objects remain largely unknown. We will investigate dimensional reduction, a new effect recently revealed by our theoretical work whereby ill-fitting objects generically aggregate into fibers, by combining theory, X-ray scattering and high-resolution 3D printing. Our general goal is to reveal new organizational principles for matter in general, possibly as broadly applicable as the very concept of crystallization.