Sergei Sukharev

Roles & Affiliations: Professor of Biology and Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Member of the Department of Biology within the College of Life Sciences. Leads the Sukharev Lab focused on biophysical mechanisms of mechanosensation and osmoregulation.

Research Interests: Biophysics of mechanosensitive ion channels (MscL, MscS), lipid-protein interactions, structure-function relationships in membrane channels, and osmoregulation in bacteria. Specializes in integrating experimental electrophysiology with molecular dynamics simulations to study channel gating and mechanotransduction.

Lab Members & Training: Current students include Bradley Akitake and Lena Shirinian. Former lab members include Chien-Sung Chiang and Andriy Anishkin (now a Research Associate). Collaborates with teams like Dr. H. Robert Guy (NIH) on structural modeling.

Publications & Themes: Recent work spans force field improvements for lipid-ion interactions, MscS gating mechanisms, and applications of mechanosensitive channels in drug partitioning studies. Highlights include insights into voltage-dependent modulation of MscL and roles of lipid crowding in channel function.

Labs/Teams: Sukharev Lab focuses on experimental and computational approaches to membrane channel biology, with projects on ceramide channels and synthetic bilayer systems like droplet interface bilayers.