Biophysical Society Bulletin | July-August 2022

Publications

Know the Editor Marta Filizola

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Editor, Channels, Transporters, and Receptors Biophysical Journal

Marta Filizola

What are you currently working on that excites you? My research program has been focusing on membrane pro teins, and particularly G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), for quite some time now. Our goal is to obtain rigorous mech anistic insights into the structure, dynamics, and function of these prominent drug targets for their use in the devel opment of improved therapeutics. To this end, my lab uses several computational structural biology tools and rational drug design approaches, ranging from molecular modeling to bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, enhanced sampling algorithms, free-energy per turbations, and more recently, a variety of statistical methods and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning tools. The promise of the latter for drug discovery has recently gained much attention, and we are committed to probing AI tools in applications to membrane proteins, in close collaboration with molecular biologists, structural biologists, medicinal chemists, and experimental biophysicists, to possibly convert current media hype into validated technological advances in biomedicine. Moreover, we are excited at the prospect of further leveraging results from enhanced MD simulations and modern biophysical experimental techniques with AI technol ogy and other statistical approaches to derive dynamic and kinetic elements of GPCR signaling, particularly those of opi oid receptors, at an atomic level of detail from experimentally elusive metastable states of these proteins and their ternary complexes. How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field? I always thought I learned more and faster in a class or group setting, or any situation that required in-person interactions. While Biophysical Society meetings, among others, allow me to stay on top of the latest developments in my field, I am amazed by how social media have impacted my most recent learning experience, notwithstanding their lack of in-person interactions.

Editor’s Pick Biophysical Journal Crowding-induced protein destabilization in the absence of soft attractions Saman Bazmi , Stefan Wallin “The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of proteins can be drastically altered by various macromolecular crowding ef fects. Contrary to common assumption, the excluded volume effect can destabilize a protein’s native state if compact non native states with sufficiently low energies are formed during folding. Even sparsely populated nonnative states might be sufficient for crowding-induced destabilization under condi tions for which the unfolded state is relatively compact, such as low temperatures. Because the excluded volume effect is always present under crowded conditions, these results have implications also for macromolecular crowders capable of attractive interactions.” Version of Record Published June 6, 2022 DOI:https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2022.06.005 FollowBPS Journals

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July-August 2022

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