The coronavirus E protein is an ion channel in the membrane envelope that is important for maintaining viral shape as well as conducting ions. We aim to run coarse-grained and atomistic molecular dynamics simulation of E proteins, in order to test two distinct hypotheses for how the protein shapes the membrane. The student would both run simulations using open-source, highly developed existing packages, and write their own analysis and signal processing code.
Project Information Subsection
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Grad or undergrad
Interested in structural biology research
Experienced Linux or Unix user
Comfortable working in a remote Linux environment (HPC cluster)
Some experience with Python programming
Structural modeling experience (understanding general concepts) will be helpful
Milestone Title: Run simulations Milestone Description: Run coarse-grained simulations of the E protein in 8 different lipid bilayers Completion Date Goal: 2021-02-10 Actual Completion Date: 2021-02-10
Milestone Title: Analyze results for deformations Milestone Description: Analyze elastic deformations of membranes for different systems Completion Date Goal: 2021-03-10 Actual Completion Date: 2021-03-10
Milestone Title: Analyze results for lipid sorting Milestone Description: Analyze lipid sorting in each bilayer Completion Date Goal: 2021-04-14 Actual Completion Date: 2021-04-14
Milestone Title: Run follow-up sorting simulations Milestone Description: Based on results from milestones 1-3, run additional simulations to test role of lipid chains vs headgroups in sorting Completion Date Goal: 2021-05-12
Milestone Title: Run general interactions simulations Milestone Description: Run atomistic simulations to confirm potential interactions are stable Completion Date Goal: 2021-06-09
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One publication on the role of hydrophobic mismatch in driving the effect of E proteins on membrane shape.
The student will learn how to run coarse-grained and atomistic simulations, analyze simulations using VMD and python, and the underlying elastic theory for the proposed mechanism.
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Effort involved in recruiting and training junior-level research software engineers.
We will apply for time on the State of New Jersey's "Caliburn" system at Rutgers University