CMSP Seminar (Atomistic Simulation Webinar Series): Wednesday 27 May 2020 at 11am

[ICTP/CM]

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CMSP Seminar
Atomistic Simulation Webinar Series

When:**Wednesday 27 May at 11 a.m.
Where: Zoom meeting

Speaker: Lucio Colombi Ciacchi  (Conrad Naber Endowed Chair,
Hybrid Materials Interfaces Group, Faculty of Production Engineering
University of Bremen, Germany)
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Title: Order and disorder at bio-inorganic interfaces: the cases of ZnO
binding peptides and FeOx(OH)y biomineralization

Abstract: http://indico.ictp.it/event/9382/

When we ask ourselves what is the structure of polypeptide/crystal 
interfaces in the context of either materials recognition by 
oligopeptides or of protein-controlled mineralization, we may have in 
mind a rather static picture with atoms occupying ordered positions, as 
obtained for instance by diffraction experiments. However, on the one 
hand biomineralization often proceeds via the initial formation of 
disordered inorganic precursors, which are converted to crystalline 
phases only at a later stage. On the other hand, peptides that recognise 
and bind specifically to crystalline oxide facets mostly present a 
disordered ensemble of secondary structures. This makes a 
characterization of the atomic-level details of such interfaces very 
challenging both for experiments and for simulations. In this talk I 
will present results of our investigations into the precipitation of 
FeOx(OH)y, as induced for instance by ferritin proteins, and into 
ZnO-binding peptides interacting with ZnO crystals in liquid 
environments. Our goal is to attempt to find ordered patterns within the 
disordered structures and conformational ensembles by a combination of 
all-atom molecular dynamics simulation with atomic-force microscopy and 
circular dichroism spectroscopy.