Our main interests include computer simulations of membrane and membrane-active peptides and proteins, especially development of protein solvation models for membrane-mimic media. Among the objects we are working on: cardiotoxins, fusion peptides, seven-helix receptors of the GPCR family, glycophorin A and its dimers, signal peptides.
Among our objectives is understanding of spatial structure-function relationships for membrane proteins via molecular modeling techniques.
Research activities:
Membrane peptides and proteins: structure, mode of membrane binding, simulation of functioning;
Hydrophobic/hydrophilic organization of globular and membrane proteins;
Homology modeling of proteins;
Computer-aided bioengineering of proteins: design of functionally important mutations and chimeric proteins.
Methods:
Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics in implicit and explicit solvents (including biomembranes);
Sequence-based protein structure prediction and threading;
Molecular docking and activity prediction;
Assessment of protein electrostatics and thermostability;