Practical Training and Research in Computer-Aided Drug Discovery

Faculty Mentor/s:

Prof. Wonpil Im, Bioengineering

Student names: 

Alain Rousseau

Erick Tepan

Fabian Sotelo

Isabella Mansour

Kevin Bergdoll

Lingyang Kong

Nathan Kern

Olivia Schulman

Rachel Brous

Stephen Gee

Turner Brown

XueMin Weng

Project Description:

One of the most remarkable features of proteins is their ability of specific, reversible binding to other molecules. Such molecular recognitions are typically associated with almost all biological functions in living systems. Drug compounds bind to proteins, regulating their functions to acquire beneficial effects to treat diseases. Therefore, a better understanding of protein-ligand interactions at the molecular level and accurate quantification or prediction of their binding affinity are at the core of computer-aided drug discovery. Students on this project will aim to study protein-ligand interactions computationally using three families of impactful therapeutic targets for cancers and AIDS. In particular, students will gain practical hands-on research experiences in computer-aided drug discovery. The lectures and tools in CHARMM-GUI (http://www.charmm-gui.org/lecture) will be used for student learning and research.

Month/Year Project Began:  
May 2019