Prof. Cecilia Clementi of Rice University is supported by this CAREER award to study the mechanism and dynamics of the protein folding process. New coarse-grained models are being developed which greatly reduce the extent of the phase space that needs to be considered. Both inverse Monte carlo and dissipative particle dynamics methods are used to seek effective potentials and a unique algorithm developed for robotics applications is used for motion-planning on the protein landscape.
The broader impacts of this research are in the biological sciences. Along with the research itself, Prof. Clementi is involved with the development of a new course in computational molecular biology and an outreach program involving presentations to local schools.
This project is supported by the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program in the Division of Chemistry and the Molecular Biophysics program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
