David B. Wells

In Torres del Paine national park, Chile.

e-mail: 
netid@illinois.edu
phone: 
(217) 721-1774
office: 
261 LLP

Loomis Laboratory of Physics
1110 West Green Street
Urbana, IL 61801-3080

I received my B.S. in physics from the University of Washington in 2005 and my Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2012. My main interests are in nanopores and simulation techniques. I helped develop the grid-steered molecular dynamics (G-SMD) technique, and added it to the NAMD simulation package. I have studied DNA through the protein alpha-hemolysin, and am currently working on simulating DNA in inorganic nanopores and nanochannels.

Publications

  1. Maxim Belkin, Christopher Maffeo, David B. Wells, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Stretching and controlled motion of single-stranded DNA in locally heated solid-state nanopores." ACS Nano 7:6816-24 (2013). PDF icon Supporting Information (2.8 MB)
  2. Stefan W. Kowalczyk, David B. Wells, Aleksei Aksimentiev, and Cees Dekker. "Slowing down DNA translocation through a nanopore in lithium chloride." Nano Lett 12:1038-44 (2012).
  3. Christopher Maffeo, Swati Bhattacharya, Jejoong Yoo, David B. Wells, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Modeling and simulation of ion channels." Chem Rev 112:6250-6284 (2012).
  4. David B. Wells, Maxim Belkin, Jeffrey Comer, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Assessing graphene nanopores for sequencing DNA." Nano Letters 12:4117-4123 (2012).
  5. David B. Wells, Swati Bhattacharya, Rogan Carr, Christopher Maffeo, Anthony H. Ho, Jeffrey Comer, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Optimization of the molecular dynamics method for simulations of DNA and ion transport through biological nanopores." Methods Mol Biol 870:165-86 (2012).
  6. Jeffrey Comer, David B. Wells, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Modeling nanopores for sequencing DNA." In DNA Nanotechnology: Methods and Protocols, edited by Giampaolo Zuccheri and Bruno Samori, 317-358. Vol. 749. Methods Mol. Biol. 749., 2011.
  7. David B. Wells, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Mechanical properties of a complete microtubule revealed through molecular dynamics simulation." Biophys J 99:629-37 (2010). PDF icon Supporting Information (pdf) (2.75 MB)File Atomic coordinates of the equilibrated "N" protofilament (pdb) (2.02 MB)File Atomic coordinates of the equilibrated "S" protofilament (pdb) (2.02 MB)File Atomic coordinates of the equilibrated complete microtubule (pdb) (13.16 MB)
  8. David B. Wells, Volha Abramkina, and Aleksei Aksimentiev. "Exploring transmembrane transport through alpha-hemolysin with grid-steered molecular dynamics." J Chem Phys 127:125101 (2007).