EAGER: A New Molecular Dynamic Model for Motor Proteins

知识价值。这项研究将为纳米运动蛋白提供一个新的分子动力学模型。这个新模型解决了最常用的模型忽略牛顿第二定律中出现的质量和加速度项的问题。最常见的方法假设质量和惯性对在流体环境中移动的纳米级物体的动力学影响可以忽略不计。这种做法是自相矛盾的，因为这个无质量模型所预测的运动实际上可能并不满足它的推导理论——牛顿第二定律。本研究的努力是通过保留质量和加速度项来建立一个与牛顿第二定律一致的模型。多尺度方法在本研究中的应用，提供了如何获得所需模型的见解。用这种方法进行的初步工作已经产生了运动蛋白肌球蛋白V的运动，这看起来更现实。这里的目标是继续完善这个模型，并使用先进的激光显微技术对其预测进行实验验证。使用这种高强度光源可以以足够快的速度和足够小的长度尺度捕捉运动蛋白的运动，以辨别运动蛋白是否表现出模型预测的行为。使用传统的显微镜技术很难进行这些测量。更广泛的影响。参与这项研究将有助于培养两名纳米尺度系统动力学方面的研究生，并为本项目的本科生提供学习经验。这些学生将参与发展提出的理论，进行单分子实验，并通过期刊出版物和会议报告传播结果，这将为未来在学术界或工业界的职业生涯提供培训。两位调查人员目前都在培训少数民族学生，以增加适合学术和工业职业的个人数量。由于拟议的研究在其对小尺度现象研究的普遍适用性方面意义深远，特别是在低雷诺数流动状态下的粒子动力学，因此该领域的培训将为学生提供工具，他们可以使用这些工具在运动蛋白研究之外的许多方向上开展研究生事业。

Intellectual merit. This investigation will result in a new molecular dynamic model for nanosized motor proteins. This new model addresses an issue with the most commonly used models that omit the mass and acceleration terms that appear in Newton's second law. The most common approach assumes that mass and inertia have negligible effects on the dynamics of nano-sized objects moving through a fluid environment. This practice is paradoxical because the motion predicted by this massless model may not actually satisfy the theory from which it was derived, Newton's second law. The effort in this research is to develop a model which is consistent with Newton's second law by retaining the mass and acceleration terms. The method of multiple scales, when applied in this research, provides insights into how to obtain the desired model. Preliminary work with this approach has yielded motion of the motor protein myosin V, which appears more realistic. The goal here is the continued refinement of this model along with experimental validation of its predictions using advanced laser microscopic techniques. The use of this highly intense light source allows capture of the motor protein's movements at a rate fast enough, and at a length scale small enough, to discern whether the motor protein exhibits the behaviors predicted by the model. These measurements are difficult to perform using conventional microscopy techniques. Broader impacts. Involvement in this research will facilitate the training of two graduate students in the dynamics of nano-scale systems and provide learning experiences for undergraduate students in this project. These students will be involved in developing the proposed theory, performing single molecule experiments, and disseminating the results through journal publications and presentations at conferences, which will provide training for future careers in academia or industry. Both investigators are currently involved in training minority students in order to increase the pool of individuals qualified for academic and industrial careers. Because the proposed research is far reaching in terms of its general applicability to the study of phenomena occurring at small scales, especially particle dynamics in low Reynolds number flow regimes, training in this area will equip the students with tools that they can use to launch their post-graduate careers in many directions beyond the study of motor proteins.