Seminar in Chemistry: Multiscale modeling of processes involving biological macro and long chain molecules

The Department of Chemistry will host a seminar on Wednesday, 03 October, 2012, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm in L3. Details are provided below.

Abstract:

This colloquium presents our recent progress at developing simulation methodologies and theoretical models for systems relevant to biology. The functionalities of biomolecular assemblies such as membranes, proteins occur on a wide variety of time and length scales. In order to comprehend the physical and chemical phenomena in dierent spatial and temporal scales, multiscale modeling has emerged as a highly promising simulation approach in recent years. In the present talk, methods and challenges related to multiscale modeling of biosystems will be discussed with the particular example of the light harvesting complex ( LHCII). LHCII, a pigmented protein trimer embedded in membrane of green plants, harvests energy from sunlight during photosynthesis. Understanding the mechanism of various structure and functions of the complex remains a fundamental challenge till date. With all atom molecular dynamics simulation, various specic interactions will be elucidated focusing on the role of protein, pigments on trimer formation and stability to bridge a gap between the experiment and theory. Based on the atomistic level simulations, a lower resolution model will be described which allows studying large scale aggregation of the protein trimers in the LHCII antennae system. In the last part of the talk, the analytically solvable models relevant to the processes such as translocation of DNA through membrane channels will be discussed. Integrating the information from the experiments, higher and lower resolution simulations and the theory can give insights into the involved physical principles related to phenomena in soft condensed matter in future.

Thank you