Klaus J. Schulten
Swanlund Professor of Physics
Professor of Physics, Chemistry, and Biophysics and Computational Biology
Klaus Schulten received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1974. He is Swanlund Professor of Physics and is affliliated with the Department of Chemistry, the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology and the Biotechnology Center. Prof. Schulten is a full time faculty member of the Beckman Institute and directs the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group. His professional interest are theoretical physics and theoretical biology. His current research focuses on the structure and function of supramolecular systems in the living cell, and on the development of efficient computing tools for structural biology.
Research
Living systems constitute themselves through self-organized aggregation of their molecular components. Klaus Schulten's research in theoretical biophysics focuses on the formation, structure, and function of the respective biopolymer aggregates, in particular those between oligopeptides forming large bioenergetic proteins, complexes of membranes with proteins, or complexes of DNA with chromosomal and regulatory proteins. The investigations explore the physical mechanisms underlying the transformation of light energy into electrical membrane potentials and the synthesis of ATP in photosynthetic systems, as well as the storage and control of genetic information in all cells.
The Theoretical Biophysics Group has integrated its widely distributed molecular graphics package VMD (available on all leading platforms including Windows) and its simulation package NAMD into a comprehensive research tool which permits interactive molecular dynamics with a haptic (force feedback) interface. Moreover, a new collaborative environment for structural biology, BioCoRE, is being developed by the Theoretical Biophysics Group to enable collaborations within the local facility and across distance and time.
The Theoretical Biophysics Group operates a numerical laboratory with powerful parallel computers and a network of advanced graphics workstations. Furthermore, the group develops a theory of the classical and quantum dynamical motion of biopolymers which utilizes numerical experiments, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, elasticity theory, and the theory of disordered systems.
Schulten's major sources of research support are the NIH (Resource and other awards) and NSF.
Publications
"Three dimensional architecture of membrane-embedded MscS in the closed conformation." Valeria Vasquez, Marcos Sotomayor, D. Marien Cortes, Benoit Roux, Klaus Schulten, and Eduardo Perozo. Journal of Molecular Biology, 2007. In press.
"Double stranded DNA dissociates into single strands when dragged into a poor solvent." Shuxun Cui, Jin Yu, Ferdinand Kühner, Klaus Schulten, and Hermann E. Gaub. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2007. In press.
"Biomolecular modeling in the era of petascale computing". Klaus Schulten, James C. Phillips, Laxmikant V. Kalé, and Abhinav Bhatele. In David Bader, editor, Petascale Computing: Algorithms and Applications, pp. 165-181. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, New York, 2008. In press.
"Mapping the two-dimensional reaction landscape of Holliday junction via dynamic fluorescence-force spectroscopy." Sungchul Hohng, Ruobo Zhou, Michelle K. Nahas, Jin Yu, Klaus Schulten, David M. J. Lilley, and Taekjip Ha. Science, 318:279-283, 2007.
"Atomic level structural and functional model of a bacterial photosynthetic membrane vesicle." Melih K. Sener, John D. Olsen, C. Neil Hunter, and Klaus Schulten. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104:15723-15728, 2007.
"Accelerating molecular modeling applications with graphics processors." John E. Stone, James C. Phillips, Peter L. Freddolino, David J. Hardy, Leonardo G. Trabuco, and Klaus Schulten. Journal of Computational Chemistry, 28:2618-2640, 2007.
"Continuous fluorescence microphotolysis and correlation spectroscopy using 4Pi microscopy." Anton Arkhipov, Jana Hüve, Martin Kahms, Reiner Peters, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 93:4006-4017, 2007.
"Structural determinants of lateral gate opening in the protein translocon." James Gumbart and Klaus Schulten. Biochemistry, 46:11147-11157, 2007.
"O2 migration pathways are not conserved across proteins of a similar fold." Jordi Cohen and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 93:3591-3600, 2007.
"Assembly of lipids and proteins into lipoprotein particles." Amy Y. Shih, Anton Arkhipov, Peter L. Freddolino, Stephen G. Sligar, and Klaus Schulten. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 111:11095-11104, 2007.
Awards
- Humboldt Award, 2004
- Swanlund Endowed Chair, UIUC
- Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Israel, 1994; 1998-1999
- University of Illinois Scholar (1996)
- Fellow, American Physical Society (1993)
- Nernst Prize of the Physical Chemistry Society of Germany (Bunsengesellschaft fur Physikalische Chemie) (1981).
