Molecular simulation of the ribosome
Inside a cell, the ribosome deciphers genetic codes to produce proteins at unfathomable speeds. Now, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have simulated this complex nano-machine in...
Apr, 01, 2006
Simplified model catches essential details of how DNA complements find their matches
Until now, scientists have known little about how complementary single strands of DNA court one another before binding to form the classical double helix. But now, molecular dynamics simulations have...
Jan, 01, 2010
According to traditional theory, lipid membranes consist of a “fluid-mosaic” in which molecular components, including membrane proteins, are randomly distributed and move freely against a...
Apr, 01, 2007
Simulating how cell membranes form vesicles
Whenever a cell needs to get rid of waste, transport materials, sort proteins, or build new organelles, membranes remodel themselves. Often that means forming small enclosed compartments called...
Jul, 01, 2007
How Tat crosses the lipid bilayer--with help from the bilayer.
A powerful snippet of protein called the Tat peptide ferries itself across cell membranes dragging just about anything it’s attached to along with it. How it accomplishes this feat has been a...
Jul, 01, 2008
Postdocs get a glance at the entire field and their first inside view of NIH grant-making
If he were a graduate student now, Francis Collins would be studying computational biology. That’s what the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told a rapt audience at the...
Feb, 19, 2013
A computational model of alpha-synuclein as it aggregates
Under a microscope, the curious protein clumps that dot the brains of Parkinson’s patients stick out like the culprits they are. But no one has yet caught the protein—alpha-synuclein...
Jul, 01, 2007
Computer simulations suggest both existing theories of membrane fusion are valid
Cell membranes fuse with other membranes to allow material in and out. If incoming material includes invading viruses, that can be bad news for the cells. Until recently, the process of membrane...
Jan, 01, 2007
Watching the beginning of the infection process in the longest and biggest virus simulation to date.
After a satellite tobacco necrosis virus particle infects a cell, it sheds the calcium ions that hold the capsid proteins together. Next, the proteins start to repel each other, the capsid swells and...
Jun, 06, 2012
Bringing models closer to reality
When the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia launched on January 16, 2003, a large piece of foam fell off and hit the left wing. Alerted of the impact, NASA engineers used a computer model to predict...
Oct, 19, 2012