Publications

Showing 69 results for Author: Sai Venkatesh Pingali

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Apr, 2026

Journal

Reparameterizing a Lipid Force Field Using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering to Improve Predictions of Multicomponent Membranes under Organic Solvent Stress

Understanding and predicting properties of lipid-bilayer membranes are essential to elucidating organismal physiology and pathophysiology. Therefore, substantial efforts have been undertaken to derive accurate molecular-mechanics force fields (FF) to allow simulation of their properties; however, much of these past efforts focused on tuning force fields to accurately repro…
Oct, 2025

Journal

Particle dynamics of nanoplastics suspended in water with soil microparticles: insights from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultra-SANA

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultra-SANS (USANS) were employed to understand the aggregation behavior and observe the size reduction for nanoplastics (NPs) formed from a biodegradable mulch film, and microparticles of vermiculite (V), an artificial soil, suspended in water in the presence of low convective shear (ex situ stirring) prior to measurements. Neutron…
Oct, 2025

Journal

Gramicidin and chlorhexidine encapsulated in bicontinuous microemulsions: Antimicrobial activity performance and their impact on self-assembly

The utility of bicontinuous microemulsions (BMEs) as carriers of the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) gramicidin D and antiseptic chlorhexidine was investigated for possible topical delivery to chronic wounds. The two water-insoluble solutes dissolved in pre-formed one-phase BMEs of Water/Polysorbate 80/Limonene/Ethanol/Glycerol and Water/Aerosol-OT (AOT)/Polysorbate 85/Isoprop…
Aug, 2025

Journal

Cholesterol modulates membrane elasticity via unified biophysical laws

Cholesterol and lipid unsaturation underlie a balance of opposing forces that features prominently in adaptive cell responses to diet and environmental cues. These competing factors have resulted in contradictory observations of membrane elasticity across different measurement scales, requiring chemical specificity to explain incompatible structural and elastic effects. He…
Aug, 2025

Journal

Toxic Effects of Butanol in the Plane of the Cell Membrane

Solvent toxicity limits n-butanol fermentation titer, increasing the cost and energy consumption for subsequent separation processes and making biobased production more expensive and energy-intensive than petrochemical approaches. Amphiphilic solvents such as n-butanol partition into the cell membrane of fermenting microorganisms, thinning the transverse structure, and eve…
Jun, 2025

Journal

Vitamin E Acetate Causes Softening of Pulmonary Surfactant Membrane Models

The popularity of electronic cigarettes and vaping products has launched the outbreak of a condition affecting the respiratory system of users, known as electronic-cigarette/vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI). The build-up of vitamin E acetate (VEA), a diluent of some illicit vaping oils, in the bronchoalveolar lavage of patients with EVALI provided circumstantial evide…
Mar, 2025

Journal

Transient and stabilized complexes of Nsp7, Nsp8, and Nsp12 in SARS-CoV-2 replication

The replication transcription complex (RTC) from the virus SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for recognizing and processing RNA for two principal purposes. The RTC copies viral RNA for propagation into new virus and for ribosomal transcription of viral proteins. To accomplish these activities, the RTC mechanism must also conform to a large number of imperatives, including RNA over…
Aug, 2024

Journal

Evidence for Lignin–Carbohydrate Complexes from Studies of Transgenic Switchgrass and a Model Lignin–Pectin Composite

Lignin–carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) form through interactions of lignin with plant cell wall polysaccharides and are thought to be a significant source of biomass recalcitrance. In this work, we investigated LCCs formed between lignin and pectin homogalacturonan (HG). The structural changes in HG deficient transgenic switchgrass (GAUT4-knockdown, GAUT4-KD) after hot water…
Jul, 2024

Journal

Investigation of Cyrene organosolv fractionation of softwood biomass and alkaline post-incubation

Cyrene organosolv fractionation effectively extracted 78 % of lignin from recalcitrant softwood biomass pine at a mild temperature of 120 °C. However, the enzymatic conversion of the fractionated cellulose-rich solid did not improve significantly. Alkali post-incubation of the fractionated cellulose fraction notably enhanced the glucan conversion. This phenomenon has also…
Feb, 2024

Journal

Deconvoluting Structures of Component Plant Biopolymers Using Deuterium Labeled Brassica oleracea Stems

Several Brassica species are cultivated globally for the production of seed oils as food, lubricants, and increasingly biofuels. The stem and leaf residues of these herbaceous dicotyledonous crops constitute another feedstock for biofuels and other products. Plant cell walls are complex, multipolymeric structures that consist primarily of polysaccharides and lignin. Cellul…
Dec, 2023

Journal

Interaction of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles with Water: Implications for Catalytic Activity

Novel technological applications in catalysis and bactericidal formulation have emerged for zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles owing to their ability to generate reactive oxygen species by fostering H2O dissociation. Rational improvement of those properties requires a mechanistic understanding of ZnO nanoparticle reactivity, which is currently lacking. Here, we determine the s…
Dec, 2023

Journal

Assessment of antimicrobial activity of melittin encapsulated in bicontinuous microemulsions prepared using renewable oils

The objective of this study is to demonstrate that melittin, a well-studied antimicrobial peptide (AMP), can be solubilized in an active form in bicontinuous microemulsions (BMEs) that employ biocompatible oils. The systems investigated consisted of Winsor-III and -IV BME phases composed of Water/Aerosol-OT (AOT)/Polysorbate 85/isopropyl myristate and a Winsor-IV BME emplo…

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Publications

Reparameterizing a Lipid Force Field Using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering to Improve Predictions of Multicomponent Membranes under Organic Solvent Stress

Particle dynamics of nanoplastics suspended in water with soil microparticles: insights from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultra-SANA

Gramicidin and chlorhexidine encapsulated in bicontinuous microemulsions: Antimicrobial activity performance and their impact on self-assembly

Cholesterol modulates membrane elasticity via unified biophysical laws

Toxic Effects of Butanol in the Plane of the Cell Membrane

Vitamin E Acetate Causes Softening of Pulmonary Surfactant Membrane Models

Transient and stabilized complexes of Nsp7, Nsp8, and Nsp12 in SARS-CoV-2 replication

Evidence for Lignin–Carbohydrate Complexes from Studies of Transgenic Switchgrass and a Model Lignin–Pectin Composite

Investigation of Cyrene organosolv fractionation of softwood biomass and alkaline post-incubation

Deconvoluting Structures of Component Plant Biopolymers Using Deuterium Labeled Brassica oleracea Stems

Interaction of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles with Water: Implications for Catalytic Activity

Assessment of antimicrobial activity of melittin encapsulated in bicontinuous microemulsions prepared using renewable oils