NCSI: Bicarbonate Transport in Cyanobacteria

Status	Completed
Mentor Name	Diwakar Shukla
Mentor's XSEDE Affiliation	Research Allocation
Mentor Has Been in XSEDE Community	4-5 years
Project Title	Bicarbonate Transport in Cyanobacteria
Summary	Inorganic carbon in the form of bi-carbonate is transported into the cytoplasm of cyanobacteria through bicarbonate transporters and allows for carbon fixation through photosynthesis. Among these transporters, the low-affinity, high-flux bicarbonate transporter BicA is a well-studied bicarbonate transporter in the Synechocystis cyanobacteria species. Using MD simulations, this study aims to elucidate the mechanism of bicarbonate transport in BicA and identify possible mutations to enhance bicarbonate uptake.
Job Description	Student will work on performing simulations of the membrane transporter, building Markov state models and writing manuscript based on the research work.
Computational Resources	Simulations will be performed on the Blue Waters Supercomputer location at University of Illinois campus.
Contribution to Community
Position Type	Apprentice
Training Plan	Yazeed will work with Matthew Chan, fourth year graduate student in my group to conduct these simulations, analyze data and prepare manuscripts. PI Shukla will meet with the student every week to discuss progress on the project and address any challenges encountered by the student.
Student Prerequisites/Conditions/Qualifications	Student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration	Semester
Start Date	08/16/2020
End Date	12/31/2020