Toward a Basic Theory of Nucleation

With the veritable explosion in the number of known protein assembly diseases, interest in the formation process of these aggregates has never been greater.   We will explore a simple theory that has been highly successful in describing the oldest of these disorders, viz. Sickle Cell Disease.    Key features are the decomposition of energy of the clusters (nuclei) into contact energies, and energies that arise from internal motion of the molecules within the aggregates.  This replaces the more familiar surface and volume terms of classical nucleation theory.   We will show how this can be expanded to deal with liquids, what challenges arise, and what insights this offers to the important and topical issue of off-pathway aggregates.