Andrej Šali (born 1963,

Kranj, Slovenia Kranj (, german: Krainburg) is the third-largest city in Slovenia, with a population of 37,941 (2020). It is located approximately northwest of Ljubljana. The centre of the City Municipality of Kranj and of the traditional region of Upper Carnio ...

) is a computational structural

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

. Since 2003, he has been Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. He also serves as an editor of the journal ''

Structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

''.

Education

Šali received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from University of Ljubljana, 1987; his Ph.D. in

Molecular Biophysics Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms ...

from

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

, University of London, 1991 (working with Tom Blundell); and did postdoctoral work at Harvard University (working with

Martin Karplus Martin Karplus (born March 15, 1930) is an Austrian and American theoretical chemist. He is the Director of the Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, a joint laboratory between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of St ...

Research

Sali joined the faculty of the

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

in 1995, following his postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He is using computation grounded in the laws of physics and evolution to study the

structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

and function of proteins. For example, he developed comparative protein structure modeling by satisfaction of spatial restraints, implemented in program MODELLER and integrative structure determination of macromolecular assemblies, implemented in program IMP.

Research impact

Sali contributes greatly to structural biology by developing and applying computational methods for structural modeling and analysis of proteins. The two most often used programs developed by his research group include "MODELLER" for comparative protein structure modeling and "IMP" for integrative structure determination. As of January 2022, Šali published approximately 400 papers, which were cited approximately 89,000 times per Google Scholar. His Hirsch-index is 132 (i.e., 132 publication have been cited at least 132 times). In 2018, Šali was elected member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in recognition of his contributions to biophysics and

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

Notable alumni from Šali Lab

References

External links

Homepage of Šali's laboratory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sali, Andrej 1963 births Living people Slovenian biologists Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Harvard University alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty University of Ljubljana alumni People from Kranj Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology 21st-century American biologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Bijvoet Medal recipients