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Riccardo Baron

Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bioengineering

Laurea in Chemistry, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Ph.D. ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Research

References

r.baron@utah.edu

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Research

Our research is broadly concerned with the development and application of computational chemistry to investigate the coupling among structure, dynamics, thermodynamics, and function in biomolecular systems at diverse spatiotemporal scales. At the interface among chemistry, biophysics, structural biology, pharmacology, and computer sciences, our interdisciplinary research integrates state-of-the-art multiscale biomolecular simulation with exciting experimental collaborations. Biomolecular simulation is a theoretical tool of steadily increasing importance for studying the structure-dynamics-function relationship in complex biomolecules. Relentless improvements in the performance of multiprocessor computers, coupled with new algorithms and methods, are making molecular dynamics simulation an irreplaceable tool across modern molecular sciences. Molecular dynamics simulations allow us to follow the dynamics and flexibility of proteins and their binding partners by creating movies at the atomic level. We benefit from excellent computational facilities within the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah.

Two main research lines are tightly coupled in the Baron group.

1. Epigenetic drugs against cancer:
Epigenetic research is steadily increasing the hope for understanding and treating a variety of cancer diseases, including leukemia. We aim at characterizing the molecular interactions and enzyme recognition mechanisms modulating the accessibility of transcription factors to chromatin as a biomaterial. Our long-term goal is the discovery and design of powerful epigenetic drugs acting on chromatin regulation.

2. Theory of biomolecular recognition:
Free energy is the key thermodynamic quantity that describes the propensity of a molecular system to spontaneously undergo a given process. Often, chemistry and biochemistry of fundamental relevance are characterized by a subtle balance between a large change in enthalpy and a large opposite change in entropy, resulting in comparatively small free-energy differences. Our long-term goal is the understanding of the physicochemical forces governing molecular recognition and the development of highly predictive simulation models for drug discovery and design.

 

References