Title: Molecular modeling of biological materials Speaker: Yaroslava G. Yingling, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University Date/Time: Monday, April 12, 2010, 10:00 am Location: CSRI Building/Room 279 (NM) & the 940 Auditorium in SNL/CA Brief Abstract: Our group specializes in modeling structure and undergoing processes in a variety of soft and biological materials. The main focus of our group, however, is structure and functions of nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. Nucleic acids are appealing candidates for assembly of synthetic materials due to their versatility in function and structure and molecular recognition properties of base pairing. Using these properties DNA and RNA molecules have been engineered into novel nanostructures to make up various effective 2D and 3D nanoparticles, nanotubes, drug delivery capsules, and scaffolds for the assembly of molecules or electronic components. We investigate the effectiveness of self-assembly of nucleic acids into nanoparticles, nanomaterials and thin, multilayered films. We use molecular modeling techniques to provide a complete microscopic description of the structure and dynamics of NAs under different environmental conditions, from detailed information on atom-to-atom interactions with ions to global functionally important motions and conformational changes which control the processes of self-assembly. In this talk I will focus on the modeling of the processes responsible for growth of DNA film and sequence dependent ion interactions with RNA loop-loop and helices. Fundamental advances in understanding the processes driving the self-assembly of complex nucleic acid molecules may further advance their use in nanotechnology and will allow us to build a more complete picture of the structure and functions of natural RNAs and DNAs. Other projects in our group are: prediction of transmembrane protein structure that is responsible for cellulose synthesis, prediction of viral RNA structures, identification of the effect of mutations on properties of collagen fibrils, investigation of the interactions between nanoparticles and polymers during the processes of materials as in organic polymer solar cells. CSRI POC: Elebeoba May, (505) 844-9933 |