Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Poster Session II

BP 26.49: Poster

Thursday, March 29, 2007, 17:00–19:30, Poster B

Water and salt: physical aspects of biomolecular solvation — •Joachim Dzubiella — Physik Department, TUM, Garching

Aqueous electrolyte solutions are the natural environment for biomolecules, i.e. proteins and enzymes, and thus provide major mechanisms which determine protein structure and stability. The detailed microscopic mechanisms which range from nonspecific phenomena such as hydrophobicity and salt screening to specific structural effects are far from being understood. Here we try to shed some more light on these phenomena by performing atomistic molecular dynamics computer simulations of simple and complex molecules in aqueous electrolyte solutions and show that macroscopic continuum approaches can be extrapolated to microscopic scales and give a partially quantitative description of molecular solvation.