Mathematical modeling of microscale biology: Ion pairing, spatially varying permittivity, and Born energy in glycosaminoglycan brushes.

Biological macromolecules including nucleic acids, proteins, and glycosaminoglycans are typically anionic and can span domains of up to hundreds of nanometers and even micron length scales. The structures exist in crowded environments that are dominated by multivalent electrostatic interactions that can be modeled using mean-field continuum approaches that represent underlying molecular nanoscale biophysics. We develop such models for glycosaminoglycan brushes using steady state modified Poisson-Boltzmann models that incorporate important ion-specific (Hofmeister) effects.