Department home Homepage Institute Disclaimer Site Map Research Projects Gallery Publications Staff Jobs PhD programs Teaching & Conferences Downloads Contact Membrane Physics, Pores, and Fusion     / home / Research Projects / Membrane Physics / Selectivity of Aquaporin 1 Against Protons Molecular dynamics simulations have identified a strong electrostatic field in aquaporin water channels, which not only strongly polarizes passing water molecules, but also substantially contributes to the barrier against protons. This electrostatic effect therefore ... [more] Aquaporin Efficiency and Selectivity Why are aquaporins strictly selective for water, whereas the closely related aquaglyceroporins also permeate glycerol and other small solutes? Molecular dynamics simulations revealed a remarkable correlation between hydrophobicity and permeability for aquaporins, with ... [more] Molecular Anatomy of Synaptic Vesicles Most plasmalemmal proteins organize in submicrometer-sized clusters whose architecture and dynamics are still enigmatic. With syntaxin 1 as an example, we applied a combination of far-field optical nanoscopy, biochemistry, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching ... [more] Conformational Switching Dynamics of Syntaxin 1 Activation of syntaxin is key to synaptic membrane fusion, triggering the release of neuotransmitters into the synaptic gap. Although it has been suspected that structural transitions are crucial for the activation, their nature and dynamics were unknown. In a close ... [more] Computational Electrophysiology Ion channels play an essential role in cellular control and signalling processes. Ion selectivity and permeation rates are key quantities measured in experiments. We show that these quantities can be directly measured in molecular dynamics simulations by establishing a ... [more] Effect of Sodium Chloride on Lipid Bilayers Electrostatic interactions govern structural and dynamical properties of membranes and can vary considerably with the composition of the aqueous buffer. We studied the influence of sodium chloride on a pure POPC lipid bilayer molecular dynamics simulations. [more] Aquaporin Inhibition: Identification of the binding site for TEA in hAQP1 A prerequisite of performing a structure based approach in rational drug design is to know the binding site of the protein that should be targeted. In case of hAQP1 we started with a homology model, built and refined by B. L. de Groot. Furthermore, from oocyte swelling ... [more] Stiffness of the Juxtamembrane Region of the t-SNARE Syntaxin 1A For exocytosis and for the selective transport of macromolecules between the various organelles of eukaryotic cells the merging of a transport vesicle membrane with a target membrane is an essential step. [more] © 2012, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen