Samarthaben J. Patel
Credentials: B.Tech National Institute of Technology, Surat; M.S. Yale University
Position title: Graduate Student
Email: spatel46@wisc.edu
Phone: she/her/hers
Address:
Room 2029, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI 53706
ABOUT ME
Samartha Patel is from Surat, Gujarat, India. She completed her Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering with a gold medal for outstanding academic performance in 2015. After completing her undergraduate degree, she earned a Master of Science in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University. Samartha joined the Van Lehn group in Fall 2016. In her free time, she likes to do oil painting, and sailing and winter kiting on Lake Mendota.
RESEARCH INTEREST
A significant challenge in designing drug and gene delivery agents is to understand how they interact with lipid bilayers which is the major component of the cell membrane. The self-assemblies of these amphiphilic biomolecules can affect a variety of interfacial properties and dictate their transport across the cell membrane. My research focuses on developing and applying multiscale simulations and enhanced sampling techniques to understand the molecular mechanisms of how the structure of biomolecules affect their self-assemble, interaction with other biomolecules and also their transport pathways across the cell membrane. The insights obtained from these molecular simulations would have potential applications in designing drug delivery agents and co-assembled structures of their synthetic mimics which can efficiently translocate across the cell membrane.
PUBLICATIONS
3. T. Jin, S. J. Patel, and R. C. Van Lehn. “Molecular simulations of lipid membrane partitioning and translocation by bacterial quorum sensing modulators.” PLoS ONE, 2021, 16:2, e0246187. [Link][Data]
2. C. G. Gahan*, S. J. Patel*, M. E. Boursier, K. E. Nyffeler, J. Jennings, N. L. Abbott, H. E. Blackwell, R. C. Van Lehn, D. M. Lynn. “Gram-negative bacterial quorum sensing signals self-assemble in aqueous media to form micelles and vesicles: an integrated experimental and molecular dynamics study.” Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2020, 124 (18), 3616-3628. [Link]
1. S. J. Patel and R. C. Van Lehn. “Characterizing the Molecular Mechanisms for Flipping Charged Peptide Flanking Loops across a Lipid Bilayer.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2018, 122(45), 10337-10348. [Link]