BIOcomputing and Structure
We are a part of the
Biochemistry Laboratory in the
Biology Department of
the Ecole Polytechnique
and the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique.
We are located in the
Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, just outside of Paris.
Contact:
e-mail: thomas.simonson@polytechnique.fr
voice-mail: +33/(0)1 69 33 48 60; fax: +33/(0)1 69 33 49 09
snail-mail: Laboratoire de Biochimie, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128
Palaiseau, France.
Teaching
material
Available
software
Research interests
My group uses computer modeling and simulation to study
structure-function relationships in proteins, as well as protein
evolution. We use state-of-the-art simulation techniques, including
computational protein design, molecular dynamics, continuum
electrostatics, and free energy
perturbation techniques, and a significant portion of our effort is
directed at the development of new
techniques as new needs arise. We are especially interested in protein
engineering, protein-ligand recognition, and the inverse protein
folding problem. We have taken part for many years in
the development of free energy perturbation techniques for proteins,
and
these techniques are now maturing into a reliable and remarkable tool.
Recent applications to aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases have provided
insights into
the translation of the genetic code. Protein design using directed
evolution is a new research direction in the group. We have recently
developed the Proteins@Home
distributed computing platform for structure prediction and design.
Group members
Thomas Simonson, professor.
David Mignon, engineer.
Najette Amara, Ph.D. student.
Marcel Schmidt-an-Busch, Alexey Aleksandrov, Priyadarshi Satpati,
postdoctoral fellows.
Some recent publications