Membrane proteins: Understanding biological switches, motors and triggers. (2013-2015)
Abstract
Our aim is to develop the capacity to represent in detail specific mammalian, fugal and bacterial membranes and to use these models to understand the role of membrane composition in the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins at an atomic level. Membrane proteins are the ultimate nano-scale biological machines. Understanding these sub-cellular components is both a fundamental theoretical challenge and of widespread practical importance in biochemistry, structural biology and medicine. By representing in detail the the complexity of biological membranes we will elucidate the role played by specific membrane components in determining the mechanism of action of proteins involved in active transport and signal transduction in context.
