Dr. Dmitri Klimov, Assistant Professor from the Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, was awarded the R01 research grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIH). The total cost of the three year award entitled “Pathways of Alzheimer’s amyloid assembly studied by computer simulations” is nearly $500,000. The grant also includes almost $100,000 for purchasing high-end computing equipment. The funded research is centered on computer simulations of molecular mechanisms underpinning the Alzheimer’s disease. Recent experiments suggest that the aggregation of Abeta peptides into amyloid fibrils plays a central role in the onset of this disorder. However, due to complexity of amyloid formation the associated molecular mechanisms are scantily understood. In his research Dr. Klimov will investigate two distinct mechanisms of Alzheimer’s amyloidogenesis - the formation of Abeta oligomers and the elongation of preexisting Abeta fibrils by deposition of individual peptides. It is expected that the knowledge of molecular mechanisms of Abeta aggregation revealed through computer simulations will be used to devise new strategies in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.