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  Dr. MARISSA SAUNDERS  
 
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Title : Dr.
First Name : MARISSA
Last Name : SAUNDERS
University/Institution : University of Chicago
Email ID : marissas@uchicago.edu
City : Chicago
Country : United States
State : Illinois
Zipcode : 60637
Department : Chemistry
Company Name :
Area of Research
Physical Chemistry; Theoretical Chemistry; Biophysical Simulation
Area of Expertise
Molecular dynamics and coarse graining; actin
Brief Description of Research Interest :
I am interested in understanding how small scale changes in atomistic structure can be related to large-scale changes in structure, function, and material properties in biophysical systems.  My research focuses on actin, a cytoskeletal protein that is dynamically organized into diverse network architectures within the cell.  These networks function to promote cell mobility, intracellular trafficking, and muscle contraction.  To understand how these functions are related to the atomistic details of individual actin subunits, including the nucleotide bound at the cleft of each actin protein, I utilize a multiscale analytical approach in which information from molecular dynamics simulations is used to identify slow collective motions within actin subunits and within actin filaments.  Based on the changes in these slow motions induced by changing, for example, ATP to ADP, we can start to understand the connection between scales and build coarse-grained models of the actin filament that accurately capture the important underlying atomistic physics of the system.
Representative Publications :

Saunders, M.G.  & Voth, G.A.  (2012) “Energetics of the G- to F-conformational transition in actin monomers: implications for nucleotideregulation”, in preparation.

Saunders, M.G.  & Voth, G.A.  (2012) Coarse-graining methods for computational biology”, Ann. Rev. Biophys., in press.

Saunders, M. G.& Voth, G. A. (2012). Comparison between actin filament models: coarse-graining reveals essential differences. Structure 20,641-653.

Saunders, M. G. &Voth, G. A. (2012). Coarse-graining of multiprotein assemblies. Curr OpinStruct Biol 22, 144-150.

Saunders, M. G. &Voth, G. A. (2011). Water molecules in the nucleotide binding cleft of actin:effects on subunit conformation and implications for ATP hydrolysis. J. Mol.Bio. 413, 279-291

N. Guttenberg, A.Dinner, J. Dama, M.G. Saunders, G.A. Voth, J. Weare. (2012) “Stochastic memory as an objective function for coarse-grained models”, under review.

Sinitskiy, A. V.,Saunders, M. G. & Voth, G. A. (2012). Optimal Number of coarse-grained sites in different components of large biomolecular complexes. J. Phys.Chem. B. 116, 8363-8374

Fan, J., Saunders, M.G. & Voth, G. A. (2012). Coarse-graining provides insights on the essential nature of heterogeneity in actin filaments. Biophys. J. 103, 1334 - 1342

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