Advisor: M. Deserno.
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer or
Parkinson can be traced back to so-called amyloidogenic
peptides. New evidence suggests that small
aggregates of such peptides exert adverse effects
on neuronal cell membranes, but no one knows what
they actually do there. Since even a few
peptides together with a sufficiently large patch
of membrane turn out to lie beyond the capabilities
of what can be done using atomistic computer simulations,
we try to shed light on the physical mechanisms
of operation by using simplified "coarse-grained" models
of both peptides and membranes. These models
include just enough information as is presumably
important to capture the relevant physics, but
neglect aspects which are considered unimportant. While
evidently necessitating a certain "choice"
up-front,
they then permit a much better investigation of the
physics deemed relevant, for instance because they
can be simulated longer and better statistics can
be obtained. We are currently in the process
of developing and further improving the description
of such systems. To this end interactions between
all these entities need to be found which properly
reflect the correct physics, and consequences emerging
from these interactions need to be investigated and
judged. These tasks offer ample opportunities
for the student to become familiar with modern physics-oriented
techniques used in computer simulations of biological
systems. Our long-term aim is to be able to answer
questions such as "Do these peptides insert
into membranes?", "Do they form pores?",
or "Can we predict phenomena that can subsequently
be checked in experiment, e.g. using electrophysiological
or neutron scattering techniques?" |
