Seminarium Zakładu Biofizyki

This talk will summarize our recent developments in elucidating both experimental [1] and theoretical [2,3] information about friction coefficients and internal friction of selected simple peptides and proteins. Molecular internal friction obtained at the single molecule level is an interesting topic in physical chemistry/biophysics and material science since this parameter can be used as proxy for elucidating/discriminating various structures/conformations in the case of simple proteins at physiologically relevant conditions. Such information can later be useful for various drug delivery systems as well as novel cancer-fighting strategies. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the National Science Center, Poland, with a grant number 2018/30/M/ST4/00005. MD simulations were carried out on the computer clusters Funk at CNBCh UW and ARES in Cyfronet AGH, Cracow (through its access grant to the RSz group). Data analysis has been partially performed on a dedicated workstation in RSz lab at UW. References: 1). R. Szoszkiewicz, Viscoelasticity of a single poly-protein probed step by-step during its mechanical unfolding and refolding under the force-clamp conditions, RSC Advances, 15, 2717–2726 (2025). Open access. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ra08047e 2). A. Świątek, K. Kuczera, R. Szoszkiewicz, The effects of proline on internal friction in simulated folding dynamics of several alanine-based alpha-helical peptides. Journal of Physical Chemistry B (ACS), 128, 16, 3856–3869 (2024). Open access. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c00623 3). A. Wosztyl, K. Kuczera, R. Szoszkiewicz, Analytical Approaches for Deriving Friction Coefficients for Selected alpha-helical Peptides and Based Entirely on Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Journal Physical Chemistry B, 126, 8901-8912 (2022). Open access. 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c03076