Lucie Delemotte
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Biophysical Journal Editor, Proteins

What are you currently working on that excites you?

We recently adapted analysis tools borrowed from machine learning to make sense of noisy data coming from molecular dynamics simulations of complex membrane protein systems. In the paper introducing the toolbox, we had tried the tools on a few systems of interest in the lab (calmodulin, a prototypical GPCR, and a voltage-sensor domain of an ion channel). Now we are applying them further to more complex systems and they just keep delivering! They are helping us understand electromechanical coupling in ion channels, which turns out to be a more complex problem than we initially thought now that we have high-resolution structures of several family members.

Another project I’m excited about is to categorize all the enhanced sampling MD simulation techniques out there; it is truly a jungle and, even for experiences practitioners, it is difficult to get an overview picture and understand which method to apply for a specific case. Several methods with different names are based on the same physical principle, but the different notations and jargon used obscure this fact. With collaborators, we are organizing the methods and trying to express them in a common framework to make it easier to compare them and use them appropriately!

How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field?

I’ve been using Twitter for the past few years and it’s been a great tool to follow what people in the Twitter community are excited about. I worry this does create a bubble where people not on Twitter are excluded, but the sense of community I have gotten has really made it worth it. I actually really recommend joining, especially in this time when we cannot easily meet in person! Being active on the editorial boards of community journals is a major way to stay on top of the state-of-the-art!