Charles Plate

Solute carriers (SLCs) are the largest family of transmembrane transporters that determine the exchange of various substances, including nutrients, ions, metabolites, and drugs across biological membranes. In this work, we use state-of-the-art atomistic molecular dynamics simulation techniques (metadynamics) to investigate the complex free energy surface associated with specific transport events for the case of the D-galactonate transporter (DgoT) protein. The goal is to gain a fundamental understanding of the D-galactonate release  through DgoT leading to the development of a transport model. This will also help understanding the mechanisms governing similar processes in other members of this important family of transporters.