We are focused on advancing our
understanding of biomolecules (the sequence-structure-function problem)
using a battery of computational and theoretical methods that capture
their chemical and physical nature as well as the billions of years of
evolutional design. Our main aim is to decipher the complexity of
proteins and nucleic acids that results in self-recognition and
cellular communication and therefore a biological function. Unraveling
mysteries on the structure, assembly, and interactions at the molecular
level have long-term implications for combating medical conditions such
as Creuzfeld-Jacob (Mad Cow disease), Alzheimer, and cancer.
We are interested in studying fundamental questions of the mechanisms of protein folding and to formulate the forces that bias an efficient folding. In addition we focus on understanding mechanisms of protein association
and the degree of protein plasticity involved in these reactions. We
are also investing our efforts in deciphering the mechanisms and
kinetics of DNA recognition
by monomeric and multimeric proteins with the ultimate goal of
understanding cellular communication from physical and molecular
viewpoints using theoretical and computational tools, using structure based modeling.