Jason Thieu - 2025 LBC Symposium

Molecular dynamics is the computational methodology of studying the structure and interactions of atoms and molecules over time. One application of molecular dynamics is the process of protein folding, one of the most complex and challenging problems in biology. Computational methods and protein structure prediction algorithms have advanced our understanding of protein folding, but manually predicting the structure of a protein remains a formidable task. This VPython program provides a basic understanding of how electrostatic forces--typically taught in undergraduate physics classes--can be applied to a real-world biological problem. Through this interactive simulation, users gain insight into how fundamental physical principles can be applied to the study of protein folding and molecular interactions.