Research and Teaching Interests
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Showing a rigid region decomposition of the protein HIVP. The blue region is the rigid core and the multicolored regions have varying degrees of flexibility. |
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A piece of a computer generated continuous random network. This glass has floppy modes associated with regions that are underconstrained. |
Michael Thorpe has research interests in the theory of disordered systems, with a special emphasis on properties that are determined by geometry and topology. He has a research background in condensed matter theory, and in recent years has developed the mathematical theory of rigid and flexible networks for use in glassy networks. He is interested in the energy landscape of flexible molecules.
His most recent work has been in biophysics. The flexible regions in proteins and protein complexes are determined from the x-ray structure as determined crystallography or using nuclear magnetic resonance. These structures are used as input to determine dynamical pathways between different protein conformations using Monte Carlo techniques. Proteins are stable enough to maintain a three-dimensional structure, but flexible enough for biological function. The aim of this work is to find underlying principles and unifying concepts, to better understand the evolution and folding of proteins. By using the theory of macromolecular flexibility that we have developed, we are able to study the assembly and function of biomolecular complexes with up to a million atoms.
Representative Publications
"Density Fluctuations and the Pair Distribution Function ," V.A. Levashov, S.J.L. Billinge and M.F. Thorpe, Physical Review B 72, 24111 (2005).
"Structural Rigidity in the Capsid assembly of cowpea chlorotic mottle virus," B.M. Hespenheide, D.J. Jacobs and M.F. Thorpe, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 16, S5055-5064 (2004).
"Macromolecular Flexibility," M.F. Thorpe and M. Lei, Phil. Mag 84, 1323–1331 (2004).
"Sampling Protein Conformations and Pathways," M. Lei, L.A. Kuhn. M.I. Zavodszky and M.F. Thorpe, Journal of Computational Chemistry 25, 1133–1148 (2004).
"Protein Unfolding: Rigidity Lost ," A.J. Rader, B.M. Hespenheide, L.A. Kuhn and M.F. Thorpe, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 3540–3545 (2002).
"Self-Organization and Rigidity in Network Glasses Current Opinion ," M.V Chubynsky and M.F. Thorpe, Solid State & Materials Science 5, 525–532 (2002).
"Protein Flexibility Predictions using Graph Theory Proteins ," D.J. Jacobs, A.J. Rader, L.A. Kuhn and M.F. Thorpe, 44, 150–165 (2001).
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