Ramya Gamini
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Home Department: Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology
Email:
rbgamini@ks.uiuc.edu Telephone:
217-244-4361 Theoretical
and Computational Biophysics Group |
Education:
- M.Sc. in Biophysics, University of Madras, India
- B.Sc. in Physics, University of Madras, India
Research Interests:
The Nuclear Pore Complex, an assembly of ~ 450 proteins is comprised of and rich in the Phe/Gly(non-polar) repeat proteins. Although one might immediately conclude the hydrophobic nature of the pore to have some basis for the gating function of the pore, brush-like structures with highly entropic behavior underlies a more precise mechanism for gating. I am interested in understanding the biophysical basis underlying the selective gating mechanism. I propose to use molecular simulation approaches which have possible advantage of studying dynamics of such events.
Mechanosensitive channels (MS) act as safety valves in bacteria. Osmoprotectants like Glutamate are known to be important for retaining cellular volume to protect the cell during osmotic shocks and these channels are known to be responsible for selective filtering of such osmolytes. The ionic properties and conformational states of these channels in their closed and open states have been studied using simulations in detail by Marcos Sotomayor from our lab (Presently, post-doc in Harvard). However, the selective filtering capacity of the cytoplasmic domain of MS channel, in particular those with small conductances, Mscs, remains to be elucidated. I am interested in understanding this function using molecular simulation approaches. |
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Publications:
S. Sheik, P. Ananthalakshmi, G. Ramya Bhargavi, Krishna Sekar Side-chain conformation angles of amino acids: effect of temperature factor cut-off. Journal Of Structural Biology 143: 181-184 (2003)G Ramya Bhargavi, S S Sheik, D Velmurugan, K Sekar Correlations between nucleotide frequencies and amino acid composition in 115 bacterial species. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 315 (4):1097-103 (2004)D.Bhranidharan, G Ramya Bhargavi, Kavitha Uthanumallian, N Gautham |