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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Computer Simulations Of Biological Systems: From Protein Dynamics To Drug Discovery, Rupesh Agarwal
Computer Simulations Of Biological Systems: From Protein Dynamics To Drug Discovery, Rupesh Agarwal
Doctoral Dissertations
Computational biophysics methods such as molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are often used in combination with experimental techniques like neutron scattering, NMR, and FTIR to explore protein conformational landscapes. With the improvements in experimental techniques, there is also a need to continually optimize the MD forcefield parameters to make precise predictions that match experimental results. To complement many of these experiments, an accurate model of deuteration is frequently required, but has been elusive. In our work, we developed a novel method to capture isotope effects in classical MD simulations by re-parameterization of the bonded terms of the CHARMM forcefield using quantum …
Using Second Harmonic Generation To Study Gram-Positive Bacterial Membranes, Lindsey N. Miller
Using Second Harmonic Generation To Study Gram-Positive Bacterial Membranes, Lindsey N. Miller
Doctoral Dissertations
Understanding how small-molecules, such as drugs, interact with bacterial membranes can quickly unravel into much more perplexing questions. No two bacterial species are alike, especially when comparing their membrane compositions which can even be altered by incorporating fatty acids from their surrounding environment into their lipid-membrane composition. To further complicate the comparison, discrete alterations in small-molecule structures can result in vastly different membrane-interaction outcomes, giving rise to the need for more "label-free" studies when analyzing drug mechanisms. The work presented in this dissertation highlights the benefits to using nonlinear spectroscopy and microscopy techniques for probing small-molecule interactions in living bacteria. …