In this research project, the PI will develop unifying physical principles to study complex biological systems. These developments will build a foundation for extending single-molecule theory to molecular behavior in vivo. This program will train junior scientists to develop physics-based conceptual approaches that can encompass the complexity of living systems and to become leaders in this multi-disciplinary field. Building upon her successful development of the biological physics curriculum at UCSD, the PI will expand her efforts to integrate biological physics into curriculums beyond her home department. The PI will continue and expand upon her outreach initiatives in an effort to encourage and train scientists from a diverse range of academic and social backgrounds. The research and training activities in this project will benefit biotechnology industry.
The goal of this project is to establish the unifying physical principles that govern the functional dynamics of complex biomolecules. The project will provide a theoretical framework that can predict biological mechanisms as manifestations of the established unifying principles. Methods from nonequilibrium statistical physics will be developed and applied to formulate theoretical approaches that are sufficiently general to be applicable to a broad range of biomolecular systems and experimental techniques, and yet sufficiently simple to result in an analytical theory and generate experimentally testable predictions. This research program will extend the methodologies, developed in the PI's group and proven successful for small biomolecules, to more complex, large-scale multi-molecular assemblies and the conformational changes involved in their functional behavior.
