BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This workshop focuses on water at biomolecular surfaces including proteins, nucleic acids, and lipid bilayers. A central theme is to obtain a quantitative picture of the impact of water on mechanisms, structure, function and transport that is rooted in a molecular, microscopic and mechanistic perspective. While the importance of water as a solvent for biomolecular processes has been realized for decades, new experimental and theoretical developments provide revealing insights into water dynamics and water-mediated interactions on the molecular scale. For example, this allows us to decode the context-dependence of the hydrophobic effect and other water-mediated interactions.

This workshop aims to spark discussions that lead to new discoveries and fruitful collaborations by assembling a diverse group of experimentalists and theoreticians from around the globe, whose work has transformed our understanding of water in biomolecular systems. The common goal of this Telluride Science workshop will be to find convergence in our understanding of biological hydration, a topic that has been rife with controversy and disagreements. Our means to find common understanding will be through sharing data and simulation methods, and the comparison of different theoretical, and experimental, approaches on common systems and questions.

WHY NOW? The development of accurate protein structure prediction algorithms and cryo-electron microscopy are game changers in the field of structural biology. Consequently, the accessibility of atomistic structures of biomolecules and biomolecular complexes has dramatically increased. However, a missing element in this picture is the molecular environment in which the proteins are found in nature. This includes structural water molecules in proteins, hydrophobic interactions in aqueous solutions that stabilize native protein structures, and the embedding of proteins in lipid bilayers. Interactions with the molecular environment critically contribute to the free energy surface on which biomolecular processes take place, including molecular recognition, conformational transitions, and enzymatically catalyzed reactions.

Many advances in our understanding of biomolecules are driven by computational and experimental tools that interrogate their interactions with water and lipids. New spectroscopic techniques reveal the heterogeneous structure and dynamics of water hydrating proteins and lipid membranes, while novel computational models and simulation models provide increasingly detailed descriptions of the underlying microscopic interactions and their thermodynamic consequences. The goal of this workshop is to foster the exchange of new cutting-edge results and ideas in this area.