Hugh Nymeyer | Homepage

Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Research Interests

The research in my lab focuses on the development and application of new simulation methods to make such simulations possible. Applying simulation methods from other fields has allowed us to push the boundaries of what size systems we can study and for how long we can study them. Currently, we are focusing on two areas: protein folding, and membrane-protein interactions.

In the area of membrane-protein interactions, we are studying the forces that stabilize small molecules within lipid bilayers. In particular, we would like to know the origin and magnitude of the "lipphobic" effect, the analogue of the hydrophobic effect that relates to the solvation of uncharged molecules within the bilayer lipids. Also, we would like to understand the effective electrostatic properties of the lipid bilayer.

Teaching

Biophysics II

The focus of Biophysics II is molecular simulation methods. Molecular simulation is different from other simulation methods because it is the simulation of discrete particles, usually atoms. The atoms are represented as point masses. One important area of molecular simulation is molecular dynamics (MD). MD is the prediction of the trajectories of classical point masses in space as a function of time. These trajectories are created by solving the classical equations of motion as determined by Newton's Equation F=ma..