Conformations of confined biopolymers

Nanoscale and microscale confinement of biopolymers naturally
occurs in cells and has been recently achieved in artificial
structures designed for nanotechnological applications. Here, we
present an extensive theoretical investigation of the conformations
and shape of a biopolymer with varying stiffness confined to a
narrow channel. Combining scaling arguments, analytical
calculations, and Monte Carlo simulations, we identify various
scaling regimes where master curves quantify the functional
dependence of the polymer conformations on the chain stiffness and
strength of confinement.