Start
Mar 06, 2014 - 17:00
End
Mar 06, 2014 - 18:00
Venue
Room 118 Creativity Hall Chemical Engineering
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Anand Srivastava Department of Chemistry Center for Multiscale Theory and Simulation Institute for Biophysical Dynamics James Franck Institute and Computation Institute The University of Chicago Chicago
Title
Using transformative coarse-graining methods to unravel sub-cellular and cellular processes in biological systems at multiple length and time scales
Abstract Cells communicate with each other by sending and receiving signals that are transmitted across the cell membrane using a large number of proteins nucleotides and macromolecules. In this talk I will focus on two membrane-signaling protein systems and one RNA-mediated protein clustering system. The first protein Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs (BAR) domain belongs to the class of "/curvature-sensing/" proteins which can cause dramatic deformations in cell membranes and is known to participate in processes such as cell fusion fission and endocytosis. The second protein Pleckstrin homology (PH) domain is a "/charge-sensing/" protein which originates in the cytoplasm and uses an intricate electrostatic search mechanism to steer towards very specific-areas of the cell surface. It then binds to a special class of rare lipid (PIPx) and regulates important cellular processes due to this specific binding. If time permits I will also discuss my current work on HIV-1 systems where I am developing ultra low-resolution coarse-grained models to understand the process of formation of virus-like particle (VLP) and the role of genomic-RNA as a scaffolding agent in the assembly of structural Gag poly-protein on the membrane surface of the immature virion.