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Protein & RNA dynamics using NMR spectroscopy

Biological macromolecules like proteins and nucleic acids do not adopt a single rigid structure but populate a range of conformations with different populations and lifetimes ranging from picoseconds (ps) to several seconds. NMR spectroscopy is sensitive to dynamics occurring on the picosecond to second time scale and can be used to study the dynamics at almost every atomic site in the molecule. We will study the dynamics of these protein and nucleic acid molecules using solution NMR spectroscopy complemented with molecular dynamics simulations. Projects will involve studying the large-scale conformational changes in proteins and RNA like folding that occurs on the millisecond (ms) to second (s) timescale and also studying fast local motion that occurs on the pico-nanosecond timescales.