Understanding the thermodynamic and mechanistic basis of a model biological temperature sensor

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Despite the existence of engineered thermometers since the time of Galileo, we still do not understand how biological temperature sensors work. Engineered thermometers take advantage of simple laws in which volume or electrical resistance vary linearly with temperature. Do similarly simple laws determine the temperature sensitivity of biological temperature sensors? The major objective of this project is to understand the physical mechanisms of temperature sensing of bacterial sodium channels, a model biological temperature sensor. To understand this mechanism three approaches will be taken: a bioinformatics approach to reveal any information evolution could tell us about the directed evolution of these sensors, a molecular dynamics approach to elucidate the molecular mechanism determining this temperature sensitivity, and finally the development of a coarse-grained computational model to allow transfer of the obtained results to other temperature sensors. A better understanding of biological temperature sensors has broad implications in the understanding of the potential effect of an increase in global temperature on plants and animals as well as in the design of pain therapeutics that target temperature-sensitive protein complexes in the human body. This highly interdisciplinary work is therefore expected to set the stage for improving the general understanding of biological temperature sensing, which, due to its relevance and wide-applicability, will subsequently enable to pursue my career as independent researcher.