I use computational methods to study biomolecular assemblies. Our team is interested in problems related to both structure and function in biology. These studies are at the interface of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics and high-performance computing. Undergraduate students from any of these majors can make significant contributions to our multidisciplinary work. Furthermore, we work closely with experimentalists so that the problems are exciting and relevant. In turn, our work informs the laboratory work.
Our computational resources are cutting-edge Linux workstations with multicore processors and GPUs. We are also eligible for access to national supercomputers for computationally-intense problems.
Research Projects
Docking Studies of SHP-2 Inhibitor Candidates
This work, carried out in collaboration with Steve Leonard’s Lab at IWU, is aimed at simulating and characterizing potential inhibitor molecules in order to prioritize them for synthesis in the laboratory.
Membrane Studies
This project focuses on the ripple phase that occurs in synthetic phospholipid bilayers. Besides its intrinsic interest, the phenomenon is a window into lipid-lipid interactions with implications for real cell membranes.
Lab Members
W. Scott McCullough, PhD
Principal Investigator
Student 2
Student 3