Reminder: Vijay Pande of Stanford University to speak on “Surprises in the Biophysics of Protein Dynamics” — April 30

As part of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering Seminar Series, Vijay Pande of Stanford University will speak on “Some Surprises in the Biophysics of Protein Dynamics: simulating conformation change of kinases and GPCRs with Folding@home.” Date: Wednesday, April 30 Time: 4 p.m. Location: 1311 EECS Building (1301 Beal Ave.) Abstract: A major challenge in molecular simulation is reaching experimentally relevant timescales.  We have developed a new approach for simulating long timescale dynamics using the Folding@home distributed computing project coupled to Markov State Models (MSMs) methods which can overcome these key challenges.  I will demonstrate this method with applications to all-atom molecular simulations on the millisecond timescale and beyond, with applications to protein conformational change in disease-relevant drug targets of GPCRs and kinases.  In particular, these simulations reveal novel druggable targets with the potential for more selective kinase drugs as well as give insight into the fundamental mechanisms of how these key proteins operate. Bio: Vijay Pande is currently the Director of the Program in Biophysics and a Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) of Structural Biology and of Computer Science at Stanford University.  Prof. Pande received a BA in Physics from Princeton University in 1992 and PhD in physics from MIT in 1995.  Prof. Pande’s current research centers on the development and application of novel grid computing simulation techniques to address problems in chemical biology.  In particular, he has pioneered novel distributed computing methodology to break fundamental barriers in the simulation of kinetics and thermodynamics of proteins and nucleic acids.