Explicit counterions in actin polymerization simulations

The role of electrostatic interactions and ionic strength effects in actin polymerization has been well documented. This behavior has been explained using Brownian dynamics simulations where the electrostatics were based on Poisson-Boltzmann calculations. In cases where the electrostatic potential is strong, the assumption of Boltzmann distributed ions become inaccurate since it ignores the finite size and interactions of the ions. Here I present a new method for including explicit counterions in electrostatic calculations and show how these influence actin polymerization and protein interactions in general.