Biophysics

Chemical & Engineering News (Washington D.C., Nov. 11) -- The detailed workings of biomolecules as they generate and respond to mechanical forces can be analyzed effectively with computer simulations and experimental techniques. “High-speed force spectroscopy will enhance experiment-simulation complementarity,” says computational biophysicist Klaus Schulten, of the U. of I. “There has been a lingering doubt about how much molecular dynamics simulations can really tell us because of the huge mismatch in timescale relative to experiments,” comments UIUC’s Taekjip Ha, an expert in single-molecule imaging and manipulation. Thanks to the new work, Ha says, agreement between simulation and experiment is now “impressive and deeply satisfying.”