SynCell-nExUs Supervisors

As a trained physical chemist, Siewert-Jan Marrink specializes in the use of computational modelling in the Life Sciences. Marrink is one of the recognized world leaders and a pioneer in the field of coarse-grain molecular dynamics simulations. Together with other developers, Marrink has established the Martini Force Field Initiative, an open platform to streamline the development of the Martini force field and its associated tools. His group is currently using these tools to simulate at the whole-cell level, an effort that will also be central to guide the rational design of synthetic cells.

”We are currently using the coarse-grain Martini force field and associated tools to bridge simulations of individual biomolecules to the whole-cell level. The complex and crowded nature of real cells, as well as synthetic ones, warrants integration of all components into a single computational model. Traditionally, our group has a strong focus on simulating membrane-related processes (e.g., lipid domain formation, protein-lipid interplay, fusion and fission). More recently we also work on biomolecular condensates, metabolite behavior, and on adding chemical reactivity to our multiscale modeling pipelines.”

For more information, visit the Molecular Dynamic’s group.