Sean Sun of Johns Hopkins University is supported by a CAREER award from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program for research involving the development of theoretical and computational models of molecular motors, cellular proteins that can generate mechanical force. The project is partially supported by the Cellular Organization program within the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. The research is developing several coarse-grained elastic models for myosin and dynein, two types of molecular motors involved in movement of muscle, cilia and flagella. In a second phase of the research, elastic models for the collective behavior of ensembles of these molecular motors are being developed. The work is having a broader impact on our understanding of basic biological phenomena. An additional broader impact is through the involvement of students from nearby Morgan State University, a minority-serving institution.
