Invitation to ICTP Colloquium on Wednesday 8 March, "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later: From Molecular Simulations to Protein Function", by Prof. Gerhard Hummer, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics

[Infopoint]

Dear All,

ICTP is pleased to announce that this week's ICTP Colloquium, "Shoot
First, Ask Questions Later: From Molecular Simulations to Protein
Function",  by Prof. Gerhard Hummer, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics,
will take place on Wednesday  8 March at 16:30 hrs, in the Budinich
Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP.

BIOSKETCH: Gerhard Hummer received his PhD in physics in 1992 for work
at the University of Vienna, Austria, and the Max-Planck-Institute for
Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany. He joined the Los Alamos
National Laboratory, first as a postdoctoral fellow (1993-1996) and then
as a group leader (1996-1999). In 1999, he moved to the National
Institutes of Health, where he became Chief of the Theoretical
Biophysics Section, and Deputy Chief of the Laboratory of Chemical
Physics, NIDDK. In 2013 he joined the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics
in Frankfurt, Germany, as director of the newly formed Department of
Theoretical Biophysics. Since 2016, he is also Professor of Biophysics
at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Dr Hummer uses molecular
simulations, modeling, and theory to study the structure and dynamics of
biological systems at the molecular level, in an effort to elucidate
their function. His current research focuses on molecular principles in
bioenergetics, membrane transport, and membrane remodeling. Gerhard
Hummer is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2005) and received
the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics (2010).

ABSTRACT:  Proteins carry out an enormous array of functions, from
chemical catalysis over molecular sensing to the efficient
interconversion of chemical, mechanical, electrical, and light energy.
To understand how proteins function, we study their dynamics with
molecular simulations that cover a wide range of temporal and spatial
scales. At one extreme, we follow fast, photoexcitation-driven protein
motions using a hybrid quantum-mechanics/molecular-mechanics (QM/MM)
description. The resulting simulation trajectories are compared directly
to femtosecond time-resolved protein crystallography and solution
scattering experiments at an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), and to
femtosecond optical spectroscopy. At intermediate scales, we study the
functional dynamics in molecular rotary motors and pumps using classical
molecular dynamics simulations. At the slow extreme, we combine
atomistic and coarse-grained simulations to find out how eukaryotic
cells probe the physical characteristics of their lipid membranes, and
in response activate regulatory processes. For these systems, and for
biomolecular machines in general, molecular dynamics simulations provide
us with critical insight into the molecular principles underlying their
efficient operation.

The abstract of the talk is available at http://indico.ictp.it/event/8144/

The Colloquium will be livestreamed at http://video.ictp.it/livestream

The poster is attached.

Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

You are all very warmly invited to attend.

Best regards,

Fernando Quevedo








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