AUTHOR=Stevens Jan A. , Grünewald Fabian , van Tilburg P. A. Marco , König Melanie , Gilbert Benjamin R. , Brier Troy A. , Thornburg Zane R. , Luthey-Schulten Zaida , Marrink Siewert J. 

TITLE=Molecular dynamics simulation of an entire cell

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2023.1106495

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2023.1106495

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=The ultimate microscope, directed at a cell, would reveal the dynamics of all the cell’s components with atomic resolution. In contrast to their real-world counterparts, computational microscopes are currently on the brink of meeting this challenge. In this perspective, we show how, based on an integrative approach, we are able to model an entire cell, the JCVI-syn3A minimal cell, at full complexity. This step opens the way to interrogate the cell’s spatio-temporal evolution with molecular dynamics simulations, an approach that can be extended to other cell types in the near future.