Paolo Carloni

Innovations in HPC-based molecular neurobiology: from drug design to subcellular modelling

The human brain is an exceedingly complex system. Understanding key aspects of its function and dysfunction requires the investigation of many different levels, from the macroscopic to the molecular scales.  The latter is essential as all processes in the neuron,  ultimately depend on the exquisite interactions between biomolecules.

Computer simulation can be of great help to provide   molecular level insights. This talk will summarize recent efforts from HBP in developing HPC-based   molecular simulation strategies (i) to provide a comprehensive view of fundamental neurobiological processes at the synaptic transmission and in signaling pathways involved in memory processes; (ii) to develop novel drug leads and tracers for neuroimaging. It will be seen that these projects are in close collaboration with a variety of theoreticians and experimentalists from the HBP consortium.

Short CV

Director of the institutes INM-9/INM-11 land IAS-5 (Computational Biomedicine) at Forschungszentrum Jülich and W3-Professor in Biophysics at RWTH Aachen.

Research Interests Investigating molecular events involved in human neurobiology by computer simulation and bioinformatics.

Doktor rer. nat. 1994 Phd in Computational Biophysics, University of Florence
Supervisors: Prof. Lucia Banci, Pierluigi Orioli, Pierluigi Orioli (University of Florence)
Prof. Michele Parrinello (now at ETH Zurich and USI, Lugano, Switzerland).