Dr. Ahlam Al-Rawi

Area of study: Biochemistry
Email: ahlam@ksu.edu

“The Tomich laboratory has developed a new type of vesicle composed entirely of assembled peptides (short chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins). Vesicles are empty compartments surrounded by an outer membrane or shell. Computer modeling will be used to help optimize the most effective peptide sequences that drive the vesicular assembly. The micron-sized peptide vesicles should be suitable for delivering therapeutic agents to cancerous cells. Starting with the peptide sequences already discovered in the Tomich lab, new derivative sequences will be generated and tested for their ability to associate with tight binding constants under aqueous conditions. Sequences displaying aggregate properties that would lead to alterations in the size and stability of the assembled vesicles will be synthesized and tested in the Tomich lab. Using molecular dynamics to rapidly screen numerous peptide sequences will greatly expedite the development of these new drug encapsulating structures.”