Ozge Sensoy
Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey
Biography
As being a computational biophysicist, my research has focused on understanding underlying molecular mechanisms of biologically important problems and also providing mechanistic insight at the molecular level. In particular, I have been working with GPCRs and their interacting partners which are responsible for cellular signaling. In order to complement relevant experimental studies one needs to access long time-scales and big system sizes which are beyond the classic MD simulations. In this respect, my expertise in doing long-time MD simulations and application of enhanced sampling techniques such as accelerated MD, metadynamics, and steered MD which provides a good fit. I work in close collaboration with medicinal chemists to direct them for effective molecular designs. In addition, I am also responsible for testing the efficacy of these molecules in silico before transferring them to either in vitro or in vivo studies. Recently, I have been awarded an international COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) grant which is based on developing heterobivalent molecules capable of binding more than one target for treatment of symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.