Division/Committee: [COMP] Division of Computers in Chemistry

Electrostatic forces are crucial for many key biochemical processes. For example all energy transduction processes, such as catalysis, proton transport, electron transfer, ion homeostasis, involves electrostatic interactions. However, modeling electrostatic forces and effects in inhomogeneous media in the cellular environment is not a trivial task. We propose to organize a symposium entitled “Electrostatics and polarization in inhomogeneous media: Physico-chemical effects at the interface of macromolecule-water phases” to bring together researchers working in the general area of electrostatics of biological macromolecules. The goal of this symposium is to bring together researchers with common interests in electrostatic and polarization effects in biological macromolecules to forge new collaborations or strengthen ongoing collaborations of common interesting questions. A symposium with researchers utilizing and developing different experimental and computational methods certainly helps reveal the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches and make further improvements. The symposium can also be used to identify important new questions for which experiment is necessary for physical insight, to guide extension of theoretical and computational models, and to provide quantitative data for benchmark of models.

Giulia Palermo

University of California

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