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2009 Student HPC Competition Title: Free energy calculations of Iron-dependent repressor (IdeR): a homologue of Diphtheria toxic repressor (DtxR) By: Joycelynn D. Nelson

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by the bacterium known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). TB is responsible for the deaths of nearly two million people per year in the world or nearly one person every 15 seconds according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Leading studies have focused on a critical process known as iron homeostasis. Iron is a quintessential component of life for all living organism, yet, for bacteria, it is also evasive and possibly toxic element. Iron is quintessential as a required cofactor for biological processes that include electron transport, respiration, and DNA replication. It is evasive considering that bacteria store much less Fe3+ than mammals, which tightly bind ferric iron in storage proteins, like ferritin. Therefore, bacteria depend on their host environment for iron acquisition for survival.