Dr. Emma Falck
Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group
Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign

Monday, November 14, 2005
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

Biological and soft systems feature a multitude of temporal and spatial scales, and to study them one needs to work with an array of computational and theoretical approaches. This is the essence of multiscale modeling. After a general introduction to multiscale modeling, I will illustrate the multiscaling concept through three case studies. The first case study centers around atomic-scale modeling techniques applied to the porosity properties of lipid membranes. The second one focuses on the construction of coarse- grained models, and illuminates how they can be used for studies of long-range order in cell membranes. The final case study deals with hybrid models, where two or more descriptions with different levels of accuracy, e.g., atomic-scale and coarse-grained, are combined.