Name: Ranjit Vijayan
Institution: University of Oxford
Research: Computational modelling of ion channel biophysics
Signals in the vertebrate nervous system move along a neuron as tiny electrical impulses. At the interface, these signals hop between neurons with the aid of a category of specialised proteins called neurotransmitter receptors. These receptors are in the form of ion channels that allow ions to cross the, otherwise impermeable, cell membrane of the neuron.
Ranjit is studying the fundamental principles that drive these neurotransmitter receptor molecules. Understanding the behaviour of these molecules, both in the healthy and diseased states, is critical in designing therapies for a range of neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
Molecular modelling, ligand docking and molecular dynamics simulations allow Ranjit to explore the structure, function and dynamics of these molecules at an atomic level. His research is largely focussed on how the behaviour of these molecules is altered by the binding of small molecules and ions present in its environment. Other minor interests also include how certain short protein fragments could unfold and assemble into fibrils implicated in Alzheimer’s disease as well as how water molecules interact with proteins at an atomic level.
Ranjit makes extensive use of the NGS clusters to perform rigorous molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations to look at the energetics of physiological processes like ligand and ion binding. Recently, using a range of computational techniques, Ranjit identified the precise location of modulatory ion binding sites in a class of neurotransmitter receptor called ionotropic glutamate receptors. The location of the binding site had puzzled experimentalists for many years without much success but through using NGS resources, Ranjit achieved a positive identification.
Ranjit said “I have been using the NGS for over 4 years, first as a doctoral candidate and now as a postdoctoral researcher. The NGS and the NGS team have been an immense help to me. Quite a lot of the data reported in my PhD thesis was generated on the NGS clusters. I can honestly say that without the NGS I would probably not have been able to complete my PhD on time”.
Ranjits supervisor, Dr Phil Biggin, agrees "The NGS has been a fantastic resource throughout the duration of this project. Many of the results would simply not have been possible without the additional computational resource that the NGS provides. It has also afforded us more flexibility in planning which calculations we should give priority to - something that is not always obvious from the outset."
Project funding - University of Oxford Clarendon Fund and the Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme - PhD; Wellcome Trust - Postdoctoral.
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