CASUS Institute Seminar, Dr. Christoph Allolio, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Prague (Czechia)
Abstract of the talk// Biological systems are hard to simulate because they exhibit a delicate interplay of scales. Small changes in the molecular structure of proteins can lead to morphological differences at the scale of the organism. Christoph and his team’s approach to the matter is to use continuum models with local, interpretable parameters and obtain these parameters from atomistic simulations. For this purpose, they have developed methods to extract properties and to compute the resulting mesoscale changes. Christoph will demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach at the example of biomembranes, where his team successfully predicted molecular determinants of fusion and rupture. Departing from biomembranes as building blocks, he then will explore the morphology of mitochondrial cristae. The final system introduced in the talk is bacterial division, where Christoph was able to predict the shape of the division site, including its response to mutations in agreement with cryo-TEM images.
CV// Christoph obtained his PhD in 2014 from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg with a dissertation entitled “Ab initio molecular dynamics of hydrogen-bonded systems.” From 2014 to 2016, he held a joint postdoctoral position as a DAAD PRIME fellow at IOCB Prague and the University of Regensburg, where he worked in the research groups of Pavel Jungwirth and Dominik Horinek, respectively. He then held a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Daniel Harries at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, funded through a Minerva fellowship. Since 2020, Christoph has held an independent position as group leader on a PRIMUS grant at Charles University. Since 2023, he has been an assistant professor there.
Christoph will be talking live in Görlitz. However, as the event is organized in a hybrid format that includes a videoconferencing tool by Zoom Inc., people interested in the topic have the chance to also join the talk remotely. Please ask for the login details via contact@casus.science.