Characterizing Structural Transitions of Membrane Transport Proteins at Atomic Details

Emad Tajkhorshid, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Usage Details

Emad Tajkhorshid, Po-Chao Wen, Giray Enkavi, Danial Sabri Dashti, Jing Li, Mark Arcario, Paween Mahinthichaichan, Joshua Vermaas, Javier Baylon, Christopher Mayne, Mahmoud Moradi, Yuhang Wang, Mrinal Shekhar, Sundarapandian Thangapandian, Noah Trebesch, Melanie Muller, Latifeh Navidpour, Tao Jiang

Transport of materials across the cellular membrane, one of most fundamental processes in every living cell, is mediated by membrane transporters.  Using various forms of the cellular energy, these molecular machines pump actively different molecules across the membrane thereby generating concentration difference of up to several orders of magnitude. Malfunction of membrane transporters has been implicated in numerous human diseases, and they constitute the main target of pharmacotherapy of various conditions, e.g., cardiovascular, metabolic, and psychological disorders. The main goal of the large-scale simulations proposed in this application is to describe, for the first time at an atomic level, the nature of protein structural transitions involved in the transport cycle of several membrane transporters.

http://csbmb.beckman.illinois.edu/research.html