Agenda for October P30 CDAR Meeting

 

Host:         Core B, Dr. Ivet Bahar

Place:        Victoria Building, Room 228

Date and Time:       Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016, 3:00 – 4:40 pm

 

3:00 – 3:10 pm          General Business for CDAR  

3:10 – 4:20 pm          Core B Monthly Report Update

Presenters: Dr. Hongchun Li (Postdoctoral Associate, Bahar lab) gave an update on his work describing γ-secretase as an attractive target for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and presented potential figures for a manuscript. G-secretase is a membrane protein and its function is related to many diseases. Recently, its 3-dimensional intact structure was determined, and we studied the intact structure with anisotropic network model (ANM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our ANM model showed interesting motions related with modulator binding in a cavity, and our MD simulations found that the cavity is druggable. We also provided atomistic details of potential modulators in the cavity.

Title of presentation: “Dynamic Modulation of Binding Affinity as a Mechanism to Regulate Interferon Signaling”

Time: 25 min Talk + 10 min Q&A [3:10 – 3:45 pm]

Presenters: Cihan Kaya (Ph.D. Candidate, Bahar lab) presented a talk entitled “Dynamics of Dopamine Transporters: Bridging Molecular and Cellular Simulations.” Dopamine (DA) is a key neurotransmitter for motor control, cognition and drug abuse mechanisms. Understanding its mechanism of transmission is essential to designing methods of interventions against a broad range of neurological disorders. In this study, we developed a multi-scale model for DA signaling by taking advantage of the advances in imaging and high performance computing technologies. The former permits us to visualize neuronal structure and localization of individual DA transporters (DATs) on axon terminals; the latter helps perform spatially realistic simulations of synaptic neurotransmission events with explicit inclusion of DA and DAT molecules.  Simulations under various conditions show complex spatial and temporal effects modulate DA signaling, both at cellular and molecular levels.

Title of presentation: “Dynamics of Dopamine Transporters: Bridging Molecular and Cellular Simulations”

Time: 25 min Talk + 10 min Q&A [3:45 – 4:20 pm]

Presenters: Dr. JiYoung Lee (Research Associate, Bahar Lab)                        

Title of Presentation: “Update on Gamma-Secretase Project”

Time: 10 min Talk + 5 min Q&A [4:20 – 4:35 pm] 

4:35 – 4:50 pm       CDAR Scientific Committee Meeting (Xie, Bahar, Xing, Wu, Wang, and McGuire)

  1. EAB Summary Report for 2nd Year Achievements
  2. Other Business for CDAR Center
  3. Next Monthly Meeting
  4. Determining Dates for Monthly Meetings – Fixed Dates are preferable