Professor Thomas Woolf
Department of Physiology School of Medicine
John Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Monday, April 11, 2011
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

Understanding large conformational change is challenging due to the long dwell times spent in stable states and the rare events that characterize transitions. We have developed an approach, called dynamic importance sampling (DIMS), that enables the collection of independent transition events. These sampled events can be used to estimate the relative kinetics, pathways, and energetics of large scale conformational changes in biomolecules. This talk will present the ideas of DIMS and several recent applications of the method to biological systems, including adenylate kinase, the calcium pump (SERCA), and NtrC.