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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/N36981/01
Title: SURFACE TENSION AND NUCLEATION OF GLOBULAR PROTEINS
Principal Investigator: Sear, Dr R
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Physics
Organisation: University of Surrey
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 08 November 2000 Ends: 07 April 2002 Value (£): 51,645
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Complex fluids & soft solids
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Life relies on the chemistry of proteins; this chemistry is determined by fine details of the structure of the protein. Currently, by far the best way to determine this structure is via X-ray crystallography. This requires crystals of the protein which are typically hard or impossible to produce. The experimental evidence is that when crystallisation does occur it does so from a metastable fluid phase near the critical point of a metastable vapour-liquid-like transition. The proposed research will examine the variation of the surface tension , which controls the nucleation rate , near such a metastable critical point. The theory used will be a simple van-der-Waals-Cahn-Hilliard theory which shows most clearly the universal aspects of the surface tension near a metastable critical point. First the tension of a flat interface will be calculated and then that of the interface between the curved and finite nucleus, and the surrounding fluid.Keywords describing areas of proposalprotein crystallisation, surface tension, nucleation
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Organisation Website: http://www.surrey.ac.uk