Mathematics in Science and Society
Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
presenting a talk by
Professor Eric Jakobsson
Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
UIUC
on
A random walk through the biomolecular landscape;
towards a statistical mechanics of molecular biology
Our laboratory focusses much of its work on the study of biological
membranes. Many molecular processes in membranes can usefully be described
as a biased random walk. The physics underlying this description is
thermal fluctuations in the context of biasing forces derived from
biomolecular structures and their environment. Membrane processes with
well-developed mathematical descriptions of this type include: ions moving
through pathways in membrane proteins, proteins moving laterally in a
membrane, opening and closing of ion pathways through membrane proteins,
etc. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of these processes has
yielded useful insights into how membrane molecular assemblies are
organized and function. This lecture will review some examples of such
theory and computation, and present challenges for future work.
Tuesday, April 22, 1997, 4:00 pm.
Room 314, Altgeld Hall.
Refreshments at 3:15 pm in Room 321, Altgeld Hall.