Computational Modelling Group

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• Sophia Wheeler

Education and Research

• BA(Hons) Law (1997) New Hall, University of Cambridge
• Qualified Solicitor 2001
• BSc(Hons) Chemistry (2010) Birkbeck College, University of London

I am currently a first year PhD student at the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation.

My research will involve the use of computer simulations to study the physical and electrostatic properties of biological supramolecular aggregates and their interaction with organic molecules. In particular, I intend to focus on the lipid membranes which, from a complexity science point of view, form the essential precondition of what makes a cell an autopoietic system – they form the fundamental dividing line between the environment outside and the intricate cellular machinery inside. Membranes are therefore very important in regulating and investigating the activity of pharmaceutical compounds; most drugs have to pass through at least one membrane to access their binding sites. Explicitly simulating a membrane in a sufficiently physically meaningful way to accurately explain and predict membrane permeability would therefore be an important contribution to the drug discovery process.

Working with...

Jonathan Essex Professor, Chemistry (FNES)

Research Groups