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UID:0-8591@eng.ufl.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260825T090000
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DTSTAMP:20260727T162134Z
URL:https://www.eng.ufl.edu/news-events/events/chemical-engineering-fall-2
 026-seminar-series-ratul-chowdhury-phd/
SUMMARY:Chemical Engineering Fall 2026 Seminar Series - Ratul Chowdhury\, P
 hD
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ratul Chowdhury\, PhD\, Building A World of Difference
  Faculty Fellow\, Assistant Professor\nChemical and Biological Engineering
 \, Iowa State University\n\nTalk title: "Understanding and engineering met
 al interactions with biomolecules"\n\nAbstract:\nMetal-binding biomolecule
 s provide a powerful platform for understanding and engineering molecular 
 recognition across biological and materials systems. Our research integrat
 es molecular biophysics\, computational modeling\, experimental testing an
 d machine learning\, to uncover how proteins (such as lanmodulin) selectiv
 ely coordinate metal ions through precisely organized carboxylate networks
 \, and translates these principles into engineered biomaterials including 
 carboxylate-functionalized nanocellulose. By combining molecular dynamics\
 , structural biology\, machine learning\, and quantitative binding assays\
 , we establish transferable design rules governing biomolecular metal inte
 ractions. We are applying these rules to study a broad portfolio of projec
 ts\, for sustainable critical mineral recovery\, elucidating the roles of 
 metal-mediated methanogenesis from cattle\, and dissecting the biophysical
  principles of metalloenzyme function linked to human metal-imbalance diso
 rders. \n\nBio:\nI am an assistant professor of Chemical and Biological En
 gineering at Iowa State. My research group –Structural Protein Biology a
 nd Engineering Lab – https://chowdhurylab.github.io/ focuses on designin
 g novel selective metal-binding proteins/ peptides/ other ligands using st
 ructural biology and AI/optimization models. We are invested in projects o
 n: Critical Mineral Recovery\, Metalloenzyme Engineering (anti-methanogene
 sis molecule design)\, and understanding Viral Infections (animals\, human
 s\, plants)\, and Image Processing. Our research has been funded by NSF\, 
 DOE\, Global Methane Hub\, Iowa Energy\, and biotechnology companies.\nI r
 eceived my PhD in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University\, in 201
 9 under the supervision of Prof. Costas D. Maranas. During my PhD\, I deve
 loped optimization tools for redesign of different classes of proteins. Ne
 xt\, I was a postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Peter Sorger in the Departm
 ent of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. I devised a large langua
 ge model and machine learning strategies to accurately predict the structu
 re of voltage gated ion channels and kinases and docking a library of drug
 s to discern non-opioid drug binding modalities with implications in pain 
 and cancer\, respectively.\n\n\n
CATEGORIES:Seminars
LOCATION:Engineering Building (NEB) Room 100\, 1064 Center Drive\, Gainesvi
 lle\, Florida\, 32611\, United States
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1064 Center Drive\, Gainesv
 ille\, Florida\, 32611\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Engineer
 ing Building (NEB) Room 100:geo:0,0
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