Nanoscale carrier systems are promising in many fields today, from healthcare to agriculture. Particularly in healthcare, nano-scale carriers developed for purposes such as personalized treatment, disease diagnosis, and reducing drug side effects have become significant research topics. Liposomes, polymersomes, and polymeric micelles are frequently encountered in drug delivery. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of mRNA vaccines, fundamentally nanoscale carriers, was a critical step in achieving mass immunity. Research in this area is accelerating not only in experimental studies but also in computational fields. Molecular dynamics simulations, one of the pioneering approaches in computational studies, have become crucial in designing nanoscale carriers. Especially when experimental studies are relatively expensive and time-consuming, computational studies emerge as alternative methods. This talk will present an overview of the frequently used molecular dynamics simulation methods and their applications in drug delivery.
Prof. Dr. Gökhan Kaçar graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University in 2006. He completed his master's degree in Sabancı University’s Materials Science and Engineering program in 2009 and pursued his Ph.D. at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014. After completing his postdoctoral studies at the same institution, Prof. Dr. Gökhan Kaçar has been a faculty member in the Department of Genetic and Bioengineering at Trakya University’s Faculty of Engineering since 2015. His research interests include biocompatible polymers, hydrogels, polymer-solid surface interactions and interfaces, nanoscale drug carrier systems, and molecular-level modeling and simulations of liposomal systems. Dr. Kaçar has 22 internationally indexed publications, 4 TUBITAK projects under his leadership, and has worked as a researcher in 2 international projects.