A general theory of DNA-mediated and other valence-limited interactions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive theoretical framework for predicting valence-limited interactions, especially in DNA-coated colloids, accurately capturing entropic effects and unifying previous models.

Contribution

It develops a general, self-consistent theory for valence-limited ligand-receptor interactions, applicable to DNA-coated colloids and other systems, with a publicly available Python implementation.

Findings

Achieves near-quantitative accuracy with Monte Carlo simulations.

Unifies previous models within a common theoretical framework.

Provides a versatile tool for ligand-mediated interaction research.

Abstract

We present a general theory for predicting the interaction potentials between DNA-coated colloids, and more broadly, any particles that interact via valence-limited ligand-receptor binding. Our theory correctly incorporates the configurational and combinatorial entropic factors that play a key role in valence-limited interactions. By rigorously enforcing self-consistency, it achieves near-quantitative accuracy with respect to detailed Monte Carlo calculations. With suitable approximations and in particular geometries, our theory reduces to previous successful treatments, which are now united in a common and extensible framework. We expect our tools to be useful to other researchers investigating ligand-mediated interactions. A complete and well-documented Python implementation is freely available at http://github.com/patvarilly/DNACC .