Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam W. Van Wynsberghe attended the 7th annual National Biomedical Computation Resource Summer Institute at the University of California-San Diego, July 30-Aug. 3, and presented the summer research of Leah Krause ’13. Other Van Wynsberghe lab members who contributed to the research included Alvin Wu ’13, Dan Mermelstein ’14 and Jeremy Adelman ’13.
The lab’s poster was titled “The Effect of Starting Location and Orientation on Molecular Dynamics Simulations as Applied to the Influenza Neuraminidase-Sialic Acid System” and described the lab’s efforts to investigate how sialic acid initially binds to the surface of neuraminidase, an important influenza drug target. Van Wynsberghe’s travel was partially funded through the receipt of a competitive scholarship award.
According to its website, the NBCR summer institute “aims to provide significant training opportunities for members of the biomedical research community in targeted areas of computational multiscale biomedical research” including computational cardiac electrophysiology and mechanics, computer aided drug discovery, and mesoscale modeling. Van Wynsberghe attended weeklong sessions on computer aided drug discovery pipeline and virtual screening using AutoDock Tools.
