LIFE SCIENCES

Each cell of our body expresses thousands of proteins – the molecular machines of life. About 25% of them are embedded in lipid membranes that encompass the cell and various subcompartments. Those parts of these membrane proteins traversing the membrane, the transmembrane domains, have many functions beyond their anchoring role, they can guide assembly of membrane proteins to supramolecular complexes, they are responsible for transmitting structural changes between the extramembraneous parts of the proteins, affect membrane structure etc. Since these transmembrane domains are notoriously difficult to study with experimental methods, a team of scientists from Technische Universität München conduct molecular dynamics simulations on GCS supercomputers to probe their interactions, their structural dynamics, and their impact on the surrounding membrane.