Musings at MID-Career: What is so Special about omega-3 Fatty Acids?

Abstract

Receiving the Thomas E. Thompson award is a tremendous honor that provides an opportunity to reflect on a scientific journey that is inextricably linked to the Membrane Structure and Assembly subgroup of the Biophysical Society. Members of the subgroup have served as my closest collaborators, as sources of knowledge and wisdom, and as role models of a worthy scientific career. In this talk I will describe our efforts to use computational approaches to study highly polyunsaturated lipids, in particular those containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). By employing molecular dynamics simulations with enhanced sampling algorithms we have identified significant differences in lipid mediated protein-protein interactions. These results are analyzed in terms of the unique conformations available to omega-3 fatty acids and their subsequent effect on lipid packing at the lipid-protein interface.