CAREER:The Physics of Signaling in Cell Membranes: Phosphoinositides and Small GTPases as a Paradigm.

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TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This CAREER award supports education, and theoretical and computational research on the molecular physics of signaling in cell membranes. The research involves theoretical and computational modeling at multiple scales. The fundamental underpinnings describe lipid-protein and protein-protein interactions with an ultimate view of understanding how these enter into the determinations of cell functions at the whole cell level. The proposed work will consist of investigation of peptide-phospholipid interactions with atomic level resolution. The understanding at this level provides input for the description of phospholipids-protein and protein-protein interactions by coarse-grained models. In the most advanced stages, this work then takes up extending these coarse-grained models of proteins and lipids to investigate hydrodynamic interactions. The award supports related educational activities that promote teaching, training and learning via integration of undergraduate and graduate students into the research process. The research will inform outreach activities supporting education in Iowa K-12 communities through workshops and other formal and informal interactions. Among these will be the involvement with local high schools to enhance science education with computational methods giving students capabilities of computer models of natural processes. By engaging graduate and undergraduate students in research, students at the university level, this work will also be providing education in cutting edge scientific based computer modeling capabilities and so enhance student education and professional skills.NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This CAREER award supports education, and theoretical and computational research on the molecular physics of the mechanisms employed by living cells to interact with the environment. The research is motivated to understand transport of materials and information, into and out of a cell, through complex processes occurring in the cell membrane. The research involves theoretical and computational modeling at multiple scales, taking studies of individual molecule that form the membranes and the proteins that carry out the signaling and then building up to more general understanding of how signaling and transport processes work with cell functions at the whole cell level. The award supports related educational activities that promote teaching, training and learning via integration of undergraduate and graduate students into the research process. The research will inform outreach activities supporting education in Iowa K-12 communities through workshops and other formal and informal interactions. Among these will be the involvement with local high schools to enhance science education with computational methods giving students capabilities of computer models of natural processes. By engaging graduate and undergraduate students in research, students at the university level, this work will also be providing education in cutting edge scientific based computer modeling capabilities and so enhance student education and professional skills.