MPIDS Colloquium by video conference: How to build a biological nanomachine

MPIDS Colloquium by video conference

  • Date: Apr 22, 2020
  • Time: 02:15 PM - 03:15 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Anđela Šarić
  • University College London
  • Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation (MPIDS)
  • Room: MPIDS, www.zoom.us Meeting ID: 924 0678 3981, Password: 564072
  • Host: MPIDS
  • Contact: david.zwicker@ds.mpg.de
The molecular machinery of life is largely created via self-organisation of individual molecules into larger-scaled functional structures. Such processes are multiscale in nature and constantly driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Our group develops minimal coarse-grained computer models to help understand how the assembly of a large number of macromolecules results in a functional nanomachine, as well as how such processes can go wrong, leading to diseases.

Here I will discuss the physical mechanisms behind a key biological nanomachine that operates via protein as-sembly – active elastic ESCRT-III filaments that remodel and cut cell membranes and split cells in two. I will discuss the development of the model via observing nature, the simulation results, and the mapping of the simu-lation data to in vivo experiments. Then I will discuss an inverse problem –– using artificial intelligence to agnos-tically design nanostructures for desired functions. Beyond their biological context, our findings can guide the design of artificial structures that are able to manipulate cell membranes and perform work at the nanoscale.
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