Nuclear Crossing Guard

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. A new mechanism has been determined for the first time for the passive transport of biomolecules through the nuclear pore complex, which are apertures that perforate the otherwise iron-clad membrane surrounding the cell nucleus and act like crossing guards for macromolecular traffic in and out of the nucleus. If the crossing-guard misfires, it can cause human diseases such as cancer, viral infections, and neurodegenerative conditions. The research team developed their model through supercomputer simulations on the Frontera and Stampede2 systems of TACC — and they hope their work will help guide the development of future therapeutics. The work was published in the journal Nature Communications in August 2022. On the podcast to talk more about it are study co-authors David Winogradoff and Aleksei Aksimentiev. Winogradoff completed the study as a postdoctoral research associate working with co-author and professor Aksimentiev in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He's now a computational polymer chemist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/nuclear-crossing-guard Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/