LIFE SCIENCES

Cells communicate with each other through biochemical as well as mechanical signals. Essential biological processes such as cell division are critically steered by the tension across the cell-cell contacts. Using extensive molecular dynamics simulations, scientists analyzed the underlying molecular principles of mechano-sensing at cell-cell contacts. These simulations can give first insights into how proteins present at the cell-cell contact change their structure and localization and thereby help to sense mechanical stimuli. The findings can help understanding the mechanisms by which tissues, e.g. skin, grow along the direction of pulling forces which were applied by adding virtual springs into the simulation system.

Composite materials made up of inorganic and biological matter present remarkable properties including fracture resistance, toughness and strength. A team of scientists of the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies has been investigating the mechanical properties of nacre, a material that possesses great stability due to its elaborate hierarchical nanostructures.

Leveraging the computing capacities of HPC system SuperMUC, computer scientists conducted large-scale evolutionary analysis projects of birds and insects. Input datasets comprising 50-100 transcriptomes (the entirety of all RNA molecules in a genome) or genomes that represent the species under study requires supercomputers. Just computing the plausibility of a single out of trillions and trillions of possible evolutionary scenarios requires several terabytes of main memory, and billions of arithmetic operations are required.

Using high-performance computer simulations and novel ways of analysing forces within proteins, a team of scientists of the Molecular Biomechanics Group at the Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies (HITS) under leadership of Dr. Frauke Gräter analysed how the heat shock protein Hsp90, a helper protein vital to any cell in any organism, is switched by the binding of a small molecule.