Understanding the mechanisms of biological transport and signaling for nanotechnology applications

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In order to function, living cells need to transport various molecules into and out of the cell, as well as between different cellular compartments. Nature has evolved devices and mechanisms for this controlled transport that combine exquisite selectivity, sensitivity and throughput with high robustness with respect to structural damage and environmental noise. Some transporters, such as ion channels, have been studied for decades. The mechanisms of function of others, such as those transporting proteins into and out of the cell nucleus, or involved in protein secretion by bacteria, are still not fully understood. Understanding the principles of operation of such biological transporters is not only an important biological question, but it also has important applications in disease treatment. Moreover, such biological machines serve as an inspiration for the design of artificial devices that can be used in a variety of applications - from drug delivery to pathogen detection. The functioning of such biological and artificial channels poses several fundamental biological and physical questions. What is the selectivity mechanism (how do these channels discriminate between the sometimes similar molecules, one that needs to pass, and another that has to be filtered out)? How do they achieve sensitivity (ability to 'pick' a necessary molecule from the sea of others)? In order to resolve these and many other issues and in order to elucidate the basic general principles, the experimental work has to be coupled to computational and mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are a tool for systematic analysis of the data; they provide rigorous conclusions of different hypotheses that then can be verified or disproven in additional experiments. Mathematical modeling also serves as a powerful 'microscope' that allows to access processes that cannot be directly measured experimentally. My research will focus on the application of the statistical physics to the investigation of several specific biological transport systems, with the goal of leveraging the understanding of the basic principles of their function for applications in medicine and nanotechnology.