CCeMMP Seminar Series – Prof. Megan O’Mara – Sept 2024

Modulating membrane protein activity is an important means of influencing biological function: almost 70% of all FDA approved drugs target membrane proteins. Despite the importance of membrane proteins, the impact of specific membrane lipids on membrane protein function is poorly understood and rarely considered in drug development. Understanding how changes in membrane lipid composition in disease states influences drug efficacy is an emerging challenge for the development of personalised medicines, pharmaceutical targeting, and delivery. In this seminar, Megan will highlight her group’s recent work using multiscale molecular dynamics simulations to unravel the interplay between membrane lipid composition, protein function, and biologically active molecules as potential therapeutics. She will focus on the development of allosteric modulators of the GlyT2 neurotransmitter transporter from the ascending pain pathway. This work highlights the role of computational techniques in structure-based drug design and the importance of considering physiological membrane lipid distributions when characterising biological function.

Prof. Megan O’Mara

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology,

The University of Queensland