Research Coordination Network: Protein Folding and Dynamics

研究协调网络：蛋白质折叠和动力学

• 批准号: 1516959
• 负责人: C Robert Matthews
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Medical School
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1516959&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Coordination; Network; Protein; Folding

Title: Research Coordination Network: Protein Folding and DynamicsThe objective of this Research Coordination Network: Protein Folding Consortium (RCN:PFC) is to provide a novel platform for establishing and nurturing collaborations and training between experimentalists, theorists and computational biologists who are focused on obtaining a molecular-level understanding of the folding and other dynamical processes of proteins. Proteins are ubiquitous in nature, executing biological functions as diverse as populating the immune system with defense agents against viral infections, digesting food, serving as materials to create skin, muscle and hair, converting signals from the environment into cellular responses and replicating DNA. The RCN:PFC will probe the molecular mechanisms by which proteins adopt their unique shapes and the dynamic processes by which those shapes enable their plethora of functions that maintain life. These phenomena are sufficiently complex that a consortium of experts in both experimental and computational methods is required to understand their properties. The consortium also aims to provide a novel and interactive training and mentoring platform for younger scientists in the field. To achieve these objectives, the PFC will support two annual meetings, one with the principal investigators and another with the investigators and their students, and a website. In many ways, the consortium acts as a virtual institute focused on a studying one of the most important and fascinating problems in biology. It is anticipated that accelerated progress towards a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles that govern protein folding reactions and protein dynamics will have a major impact on biochemistry, medicine and the biotechnology industry.The goal of this Protein Folding Consortium (PFC) is to transform the way that scientists think about the protein folding problem and protein dynamics by creating a consortium of experimentalists, theorists and computational biologists whose collective efforts exceed the progress attainable by individual labs. Advances in high performance computing combined with novel sampling methods and the application of sophisticated experiments now make it possible for simulations and experiments to study protein folding and dynamics on similar time scales. Simulations generate testable predictions for experiments. Results from experiments can be used to refine simulation methodologies and force fields. This iterative synergistic approach between simulation and experiment, when deployed across proteins of different folds, sizes, complexity and evolutionary profiles, will allow for a coherent and convergent description of the folding process. The expanding ambitions of the PFC encompass folding in vivo, the evolution of biophysical properties, the coupled folding and binding of intrinsically disordered proteins, macromolecular machines and functional dynamics. These new ventures are related, in one way or another, to the folding free energy surface of a protein and its modulation by sequence, history and the environment. This project is jointly funded by the Molecular Biophysics Cluster in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences; the Physics of Living Systems Program in the Division of Physics, and the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Division of Chemistry in the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

标题：研究协调网络：蛋白质折叠和动力学该研究协调网络：蛋白质折叠联盟（RCN：PFC）的目标是提供一个新颖的平台，用于建立和培育实验学家、理论家和计算生物学家之间的合作和培训，这些人致力于获得对蛋白质折叠和其他动态过程的分子水平理解。 蛋白质在自然界中无处不在，执行着多种生物功能，例如用防御剂填充免疫系统以抵御病毒感染、消化食物、作为制造皮肤、肌肉和头发的材料、将环境信号转化为细胞反应以及复制 DNA。 RCN:PFC 将探索蛋白质采用其独特形状的分子机制，以及这些形状实现维持生命的多种功能的动态过程。 这些现象非常复杂，需要实验和计算方法方面的专家联盟才能理解它们的特性。该联盟还旨在为该领域的年轻科学家提供新颖的互动培训和指导平台。为了实现这些目标，PFC 将支持两次年度会议，一次与主要研究人员举行，另一次与研究人员及其学生举行，并建立一个网站。在许多方面，该联盟充当一个虚拟研究所，专注于研究生物学中最重要和最令人着迷的问题之一。预计，加速加深对蛋白质折叠反应和蛋白质动力学基本原理的理解将对生物化学、医学和生物技术行业产生重大影响。蛋白质折叠联盟 (PFC) 的目标是改变蛋白质折叠反应和蛋白质动力学的基本原理。科学家们通过创建一个由实验学家、理论家和计算生物学家组成的联盟来思考蛋白质折叠问题和蛋白质动力学，他们的集体努力超过了单个实验室所能取得的进展。 高性能计算的进步与新颖的采样方法以及复杂实验的应用相结合，现在使得通过模拟和实验研究类似时间尺度上的蛋白质折叠和动力学成为可能。 模拟为实验生成可测试的预测。实验结果可用于改进模拟方法和力场。这种模拟和实验之间的迭代协同方法，当部署在不同折叠、大小、复杂性和进化概况的蛋白质上时，将允许对折叠过程进行连贯和收敛的描述。 PFC 不断扩展的目标包括体内折叠、生物物理特性的进化、本质上无序蛋白质的耦合折叠和结合、大分子机器和功能动力学。 这些新的尝试以某种方式与蛋白质的折叠自由能表面及其通过序列、历史和环境的调节有关。 该项目由生物科学局分子和细胞生物科学部分子生物物理学集群共同资助；物理系的生命系统物理学项目和数学与物理科学局化学系的生命过程化学项目。