Computational Molecular Biomechanics: A Hierarchical Multiscale Framework With Applications to Gating of Mechanosensitive Channels of Large Conductance

X. CHEN, Q. CUI

Research output: Book Chapters | Papers in Conference ProceedingsConference paper (refereed)Researchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding the mechanism of mechanobiological processes at the molecular level is an important challenge in modern biophysics. Despite recent advances in experimental and numerical techniques, the intrinsic multiscale nature of mechanobiological processes makes it difficult to meet such challenge in many systems of interest. Recently, a continuum-mechanics based hierarchical modeling and simulation framework has been established and applied to study the mechanical responses and gating behaviors of a prototypical system, the mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) in bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), from which several putative gating mechanisms have been testified and new insights deduced. This article reviews these latest findings and suggests possible improvements for future modeling work. The computationally efficient and versatile continuum-based protocol is expected to make contributions to a variety of mechanobiology problems. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationChallenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics
Pages535-556
Number of pages21
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Supports by National Science Foundation (CMMI-0643726) and National Institutes of Health (R01-GM071428-01) are acknowledged.

Keywords

  • Computation
  • Mechanosensitive channel
  • Molecular biomechanics

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