The next Computational chemistry seminar will be held on Wednesday 22nd February at 10 AM in Zoom.
Speaker: Vivek Sharma, University of Helsinki
Topic: Electronic and protonic currents of life
Biological energy (ATP) is efficiently produced in cells by a pathway called the electron transport chain. Electron transfer reactions are strongly coupled to proton transfer reactions, which drives the translocation of protons across the biological membranes. An established proton electrochemical gradient drives the synthesis of ATP, which serves for numerous biological functions. In this talk, I will discuss how protein architecture in the electron transport chain, biological membranes and solvent water catalyze electron and proton transfer reactions to generate energy. The methods applied to study these processes, classical molecular simulations and quantum chemical calculations, will be discussed.