Research Team Member
Ioan Kosztin
University of Missouri-Columbia
The Co-PI is a computational biophysicist with extensive expertise in developing
and applying advanced computational and analytical methods to study the
functioning principles of biomolecular systems (e.g., proteins and their
cofactors). Employing a combination of large scale molecular dynamics (MD)
simulations, ab initio quantum chemistry (QC) calculations and analytical modeling
techniques, the Co-PI has already obtained several important results in molecular
biophysics: identified and characterized a new force generating mechanism by G-
proteins, developed a novel approach to calculate spectroscopic properties of
pigment-protein-complexes and developed a Brownian ratchet model for the
transport properties of aquaporin channels. The role of the Co-PI in the present
project is to set up computational models to capture the time evolution and
dynamics of the cellular self-assembly process during organ module formation, in
particular embryonic cushion and limb bud development. These models will employ
large-scale MD simulations on the Co-PI's state-of-the-art 32 node Linux Beowulf
cluster.
