Computational Visualization Center

A cross-disciplinary effort to develop and improve the technologies for computational modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization.

Understanding Shear in Proteins

CVC Seminar Wed Oct 12 1:15-2:30pm ACES 4.304

Speaker: Radhakrishna Bettadapura

Title: Understanding shear in proteins

Abstract: Shear is lateral motion between a pair of protein interfaces. Though there are tens of proteins—and hundreds of accompanying interfaces— which are known to undergo shear, little is known about the shearing mechanism itself. Do a given pair of protein interfaces undergo shear? If so, to what degree? These questions are currently difficult to answer.

My talk will be in two parts. In the first part, I will present a simple, planar shear parametrization; apply it to several helix-helix interfaces in citrate-synthase, comparing my results with those in the literature; and draw a few preliminary inferences. In the second part, I will present the results of applying shear to a docking exercise involving the SIV-17b complex and the D1D2 neutralizing antibody.