Ana-Nicoleta Bondar
University of Bucharest

Editor, Proteins
Biophysical Journal

What are you currently working on that excites you?

We work on understanding how membrane proteins use hydrogen-bond networks to perform their biological function. We are particularly interested in understanding how such networks help stabilize a protein structure, interconnect functionally important sites of the protein, and establish proton-conducting wires. I am really excited about the collaborations with colleagues with whom we work together on questions of common interest. In my laboratory, we use modeling and molecular simulations to study the motions of membrane systems. The hydrogen-bond networks that we study are dynamic and typically involve water molecules, and from the long simulations that we perform, we often derive rather large datasets. To analyze these efficiently, we develop specialized graph-based algorithms and codes. These approaches have allowed us to discover, for example, that a membrane receptor already has in place much of its internal hydrogen-bond network before an external ligand has bound to it, and it can rearrange in a ligand-specific manner. This is potentially important for interactions between the receptor and other partners of the cellular signal transduction pathway.

How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field?

I like to regularly read scientific papers, new and old. As an editorial board member, I read manuscripts and the exchange between authors and reviewers. I check notifications that I receive about new papers and read those that I find interesting. I look at the reference lists of papers that I read. I attend conferences and listen to the talks and discuss with colleagues. I also very much enjoy reading the science sections of the newspapers that we subscribe to at home.