Title: Modeling the Molecular Mechanics of Hearing
Speaker: Marcos Sotomayor (OSU Dept of Chemistry & Biochemistry)
Abstract: When we hear, sound vibrations are conveyed to hair cells, the mechanoreceptors that mediate sensory perception in the inner ear. Each hair cell has a bundle of hair-like projections that are deflected by these vibrations. As the hair cell bundle moves, it pulls on fine protein filaments called tip links, which in turn open ion channels to trigger an electrical signal that is sent to the brain. Two enormous cadherin proteins have been shown to form the mature tip link, which is essential for hearing and is thought to be a straight filament with tightly bound calcium ions that give it rigidity and strength. In this talk I will discuss our efforts to obtain a complete structure of the tip link cadherin proteins and our progress in modeling their mechanics using molecular dynamics simulations. Overall, our results are providing a molecular view of tip link function in vertebrate mechanosensation.
Seminar URL: https://people.math.osu.edu/xue.41/AppliedMathSeminar.html