Research Topics - Membrane Biophysics

Research Topics - Membrane Biophysics

Spotlight - HDL and Nanodiscs
Spherical HDL

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Cholesterol maintains a healthy body, but too much cholesterol can lead to atherosclerosis and heart disease. Lipoproteins can bag superfluous cholesterol in the arteries and transport it to the liver for removal. One such lipoprotein is high-density lipoprotein (HDL) which self-assembles into discoidal particles (see the Mar 2007 highlight) and then bags cholesterol. How this works is the subject of a recent report. Molecular dynamics simulations using NAMD revealed that discoidal HDL particles, teaming up with the enzyme LCAT, first turn cholesterol chemically into cholesterol ester and then sucks it into the interior of the particle; in the course of this process, the HDL particle swells into a sphere. More information on our lipoprotein website.

All Spotlights

Papers

Molecular dynamics investigation of the w current in the Kv1.2 voltage sensor domains. Fatemeh Khalili-Araghi, Emad Tajkhorshid, Benoit Roux, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 102:258-267, 2012.

Cytoplasmic domain filter function in the mechanosensitive channel of small conductance. Ramya Gamini, Marcos Sotomayor, Christophe Chipot, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 101:80-89, 2011.

Free energy of nascent-chain folding in the translocon. James Gumbart, Christophe Chipot, and Klaus Schulten. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 133:7602-7607, 2011.

Cryo-EM structure of the ribosome-SecYE complex in the membrane environment. Jens Frauenfeld, James Gumbart, Eli O. van der Sluis, Soledad Funes, Marco Gartmann, Birgitta Beatrix, Thorsten Mielke, Otto Berninghausen, Thomas Becker, Klaus Schulten, and Roland Beckmann. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 18:614-621, 2011.

Free-energy cost for translocon-assisted insertion of membrane proteins. James Gumbart, Christophe Chipot, and Klaus Schulten. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 108:3596-3601, 2011.

Viewing the mechanisms of translation through the computational microscope. James Gumbart, Eduard Schreiner, Leonardo G. Trabuco, Kwok-Yan Chan, and Klaus Schulten. In Joachim Frank, editor, Molecular Machines in Biology, chapter 8, pp. 142-157. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

GPU algorithms for molecular modeling. John E. Stone, David J. Hardy, Barry Isralewitz, and Klaus Schulten. In Jack Dongarra, David A. Bader, and Jakub Kurzak, editors, Scientific Computing with Multicore and Accelerators, chapter 16, pp. 351-371. Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, 2011.

Calculation of the gating charge for the Kv1.2 voltage-activated potassium channel. Fatemeh Khalili-Araghi, Vishwanath Jogini, Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy, Emad Tajkhorshid, Benoit Roux, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 98:2189-2198, 2010.

Self-assembly of photosynthetic membranes. Jen Hsin, Danielle E. Chandler, James Gumbart, Christopher B. Harrison, Melih Sener, Johan Strumpfer, and Klaus Schulten. ChemPhysChem, 11:1154-1159, 2010.

Multi-scale simulations of membrane sculpting by N-BAR domains. Ying Yin, Anton Arkhipov, and Klaus Schulten. In Philip Biggin and Mark Sansom, editors, Molecular Simulations and Biomembranes: From Biophysics to Function, chapter 6, pp. 146-176. Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010.

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