Date and Time: Thursday, May 9th 11:30am – 12:30pm

Location: CODA Room 114

Host: PACE

Title: Advanced Computing Approaches for Studying Lipid Membrane Biophysics

Abstract:

Modern advanced computing has allowed scientists to apply a “computational microscope” to numerous biological systems and uncover their physical underpinnings in a manner not feasible on smaller computing resources. This seminar will detail the use of supercomputers, including XSEDE’s Bridges and D.E. Shaw Research’s Anton2, both located at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, to conduct large-scale simulations of lipid bilayers. Why advanced computing resources were necessary will be discussed, as will steps taken to maximize the computational efficiency of these simulations. 

This approach, at the nexus of computational science, physics, chemistry, and biology, may be employed to understand the behavior of cell membranes, the lipid bilayers that form the boundary of living cells and control their interaction with the surrounding world. Lipid rafts, regions of the membrane with distinct physical properties, may be modeled in a system of coexisting liquid phases and simulated by Molecular Dynamics. Extracting lipid physical properties from the studies’ numerical data revealed new insights into coupling of lipid rafts and communication across the membrane. 

Biography:

Dr. Michael Weiner received his undergraduate degree in physics from Yale University and his doctorate, also in physics, from Cornell University. He completed his doctoral research in computational biophysics in the laboratory of Gerald Feigenson, where he focused on Molecular Dynamics simulations of the biophysical chemistry of lipid bilayers as models of cell membranes. Dr. Weiner is interested applying advanced computing techniques to questions throughout the sciences.