Guowei Wei

• 
  Variational multiscale modeling of ion channels
  Guowei Wei
  We discuss adifferential geometry based multiscale and multiphysics paradigm for ion channel systems. We describe macromolecular systems by a number of approaches, including macroscopic electrostatics and elasticity and/or microscopic molecular mechanics (MM) and quantum mechanics; while treating the aqueous environment as a dielectric continuum or electrolytic fluids. We use differential geometry theory of surfaces to couple various microscopic and macroscopic domains on an equal footing. Based on the variational principle, we derive the coupled Poisson-Boltzmann, Nernst-Planck, Kohn-Sham, Laplace-Beltrami, and Newton equations for the structure, function, dynamics and transport of ion-channel systems. We employ homology modeling to construct mosquito sodium channels and combine MM and PNP type of approaches for the understanding of sodium channel gating.
• 
  Mathematics is the champion of biomolecular data challenges
  Guowei Wei
  Biology is believed to be the last forefront of natural sciences. Recent advances in biotechnologies have led to the exponential growth of biological data, which paves the way for biological sciences to transform from qualitative, phenomenological and descriptive to quantitative, analytical and predictive. Mathematics is becoming a driven force behind this historic transformation as it did for quantum physics a century ago. I will discuss how to combine differential geometry, algebraic topology, graph theory and partial differential equation with machine learning to give rise to the most accurate predictions of tens of thousands of experimental data in solvation free energy, partition coefficient, protein-drug binding affinity, and protein mutation impact.