Molecular and Statistical Biophysics Group

Our group is focused on the application of tools and concepts typical of Statistical Mechanics to biological contexts. Our main interest is in the development of suitable coarse-grained (often topology-based) models apt for capturing the main features of the kinetics and thermodynamics of protein folding and the elastic response of various biopolymers (enzymes, DNA etc.).

Our work is mainly focused on the development of techniques aimed at enhancing the capability of computer simulations to provide predictive answers for complex heterogeneous systems. He is active both in the field of multiscale modeling, in which different parts of the system are treated at a different level of accuracy and in the development of techniques for studying events that would happen on a time scale that is not accessible to a direct simulation, such as enzymatic reactions and protein folding. Alessandro Laio is also the director of the SISSA-DEMOCRITOS CECAM Node.

I am a permanent research staff the CNR-IOM-Democritos National Simulation Center. After obtaining a PhD at ETH Zentrum, Zurich I was a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2003 I joined the CNR-IOM- Democtitos Center for Atomistic Simulations. My research interests focus mainly in understanding the molecular mechanisms of human diseases (cancer, neurogedeneration, antibiotic resistance, tissue degradation) with particular emphasis on the role of metal ions in the onset of such diseases. In addition, I also study the mechanism of drugs and devices to cure human diseases. My studies are carried out via classical, ab initio, hybrid QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations and bioinformatics tools.

I am a tenure-track scientist with a background in physics and my experience includes electronic structure calculation and molecular dynamics simulation of biomolecules. Presently, I am working on the simulation of small ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules, using advanced sampling accelerated-sampling methods and developing new ad hoc techniques. I am also one of the core developers of PLUMED.

I am a permanent research staff with a background in Physics. After obtaining my PhD in Sissa in 2003, I have spent several years as a postdoc in important research centers across Europe (Lausanne, Dresden and Zaragoza). My research experience include theory and simulation (Molecular Dynamics and Monte-Carlo) of coarse-grain models for polymers and bio-polymers. At present, my research interests focus on modeling the dynamic behavior of generic entangled polymer systems, in relation to their relevance in the description of notable biological systems (chromosome organization in eukaryotes).