Free energy, nucleic acids, counterion

Cationic lipids interact electrostatically and form stable complexes (lipoplexes) with the polyanionic nucleic acids. The structure of most lipoplexes is a multi-lamellar sandwich in which lipid bilayers alternate with layers of DNA strands [16, 62-64] (Fig. 20). Although infrequent, nonlamellar structures have also been found. The free energy gain upon lipoplex formation was shown to be essentially of entropic nature resulting from the counterion release and macromolecule dehydration [65, 66]. 

Soon the excitement to see for the first time graphical representations of computed solvation shells for solvated ions from Monte Carlo simulations [81]. The next step was to go to even more complex systems, like enzymes, proteins, and particularly nucleic acids, A-DNA [82], B-DNA [83], without and with counterions [84] and in solution. The quantum biology community was taken by surprise, but soon accepted the new path as a new but necessary computational standard. I was proud to have forcefully recalled that the correct dictionary of quantum biology must contain terms like temperature, volume and free energy eventually, I was elected president of the International Society of Quantum Biology. 

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