Publications

1. Yi, F., Guo, J., Vo, T. T., Hetrick, B., Haikerwal, A., Zhou, Z., Sealey, L., He, S., Han, Y., Chilin, L., Spear, M., Yu, D., Kim, Y., Kashanchi, F., Zhou, T., Xu, X., Lockhart, C., & Wu, Y. (2026) Discovery of actinator, actin-derived bioactive peptides that modulate cytoskeleton and actin-related cellular activities. Sci. Adv. (accepted)

2. Bowers, S. R., Jeffries, W., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2026) Accelerating replica exchange molecular dynamics: A comparison of hydrogen mass repartitioning and light water models. J. Chem. Theory Comput. (accepted), doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5c01929

3. Luo, X., Khayat, E., Bowers, S. R., Delfing, B. M., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2025) Free energy perturbation simulations measure the change in binding affinity of the Aβ25–35 peptide to the zwitterionic bilayer caused by oxidation. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 65(21): 12014-12026, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.5c02148

4. Jeffries, W., Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Luo, X., Olson, A., Foreman, K. W., Lee, K. H., Petruncio, G., De Benedictis, V., Paige, M. Kehn-Hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2025) Ligands binding diffusively to protein target act as inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. PLoS Comput. Biol. 21(9): e1013495, doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013495

5. Xie, L., Lockhart, C., Klimov, D. K., & Jafri, M. S. (2025) Combining molecular dynamics and machine learning to predict drug resistance causing variants of BRAF in colorectal cancer. Molecules 30(17): 3556, doi: 10.3390/molecules30173556

6. Fitz, A. R., Klimov, D. K., & Lockhart, C. (2025) Binding of antimicrobial peptide indolicidin to DMPC bilayer using replica-exchange molecular dynamics. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 65(17): 9251-9260, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.5c01153

7. Han, Y., Sealey, L., Fu, Y., Delfing, B. M., Lockhart, C., Chilin, L., Tiwari, S., Jafri, M. S., Klimov, D. K., & Wu, Y. (2025) The decameric repeat (DR) of PSGL-1 functions as a basic antiviral unit in restricting HIV-1 infectivity. bioRxiv (posted), doi: 10.1101/2025.05.14.654117

8. Laracuente, X. E., Delfing, B. M., Luo, X., Olson, A., Jeffries, W., Bowers, S. R., Foreman, K. W., Lee, K.-H., Paige, M., Kehn-Hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2025) Applying absolute free energy perturbation molecular dynamics to diffusively binding ligands. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 21(8): 4286-4298, doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5c00121

9. He, S., Haikerwal, A., Tiwari, S., Dabbagh, D., Alam, M. Z., Yoon, J. L., Hetrick, B., Han, Y., Shan, L., Lockhart, C., & Wu, Y. (2025) CD34 serves as an intrinsic innate immune guardrail protecting stem cells from replicating retroviruses. bioRxiv (posted), doi: 10.1101/2025.03.15.643450

10. Xie, L., Lockhart, C., Bowers, S. R., Klimov, D. K., & Jafri, M. S. (2025) Structural analysis of amylin and amyloid β peptide signaling in Alzheimer’s disease. Biomolecules 15(1): 89, doi: 10.3390/biom15010089

11. Tiwari, S., Delfing, B. M., Han, Y., Lockhart, C., Haikerwal, A., Waheed, A. A., Freed, E. O., Jafri, M. S., Klimov, D. K., & Wu, Y. (2024) PSGL-1 excludes HIV Env from virion surface through spatial hindrance involving structural folding of the decameric repeats. bioRxiv (posted), doi: 10.1101/2024.12.28.630612v1

12. Goldberg, J. F., de Filippi, C. R., Lockhart, C., McNair, E. R., Sinha, S., Kong, H., Najjar, S. S., Lohmar, B. J., Tchoukina, I., Shah, K., Feller, E., Hsu, S., Rodrigo, M. E., Jang, M., Marboe, C. C., Berry, G. J., Valantine, H. A., Agbor-Enoh, A., & Shah, P. (2024) Proteomics in acute heart transplant rejection, on behalf of the GRAfT Investigators. Transplantation (in press), doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000005258

13. Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Luo, X., Olson, A., Jeffries, W., Foreman, K. W., Paige, M., Kehn-Hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2024) Binding of inhibitors to nuclear localization signal peptide from Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus capsid protein explored with all-atom replica exchange molecular dynamics. ACS Omega 9(38): 40259-40268, doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c06981

14. Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Jeffries, W., Luo, X., Olson, A., Foreman, K. W., Petruncio, G., Lee, K. H., Paige, M., Kehn-Hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2024) Competitive binding of viral nuclear localization signal peptide and inhibitor ligands to importin-α nuclear transport protein. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 64(13): 5262-5272, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00626

15. Bowers, S. R., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2024) Binding and dimerization of PGLa peptides in anionic lipid bilayer studied by replica exchange molecular dynamics. Sci. Rep. 14: 4972, doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-55270-8

16. Bowers, S. R., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2023) Replica exchange with hybrid tempering efficiently samples PGLa peptide binding to anionic bilayer. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 19(18): 6532-6550, doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00787

17. Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Olson, A., Foreman, K. W., Paige, M., Kehn-hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2023) Binding of viral nuclear localization signal peptides to importin-α nuclear transport protein. Biophys. J. 122(17): 3476-3488, doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2023.07.024

18. Lockhart, C., Luo, X., Olson, A., Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Foreman, K. W., Paige, M., Kehn-Hall, K., & Klimov, D. K. (2023) Can free energy perturbation simulations coupled with replica-exchange molecular dynamics study ligands with distributed binding sites? J. Chem. Inf. Model. 63(15): 4791-4802, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c00631

19. Delfing, B. M., Olson, A., Laracuente, X. E., Foreman, K. W., Paige, M., Kehn-Hall, K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2023) Binding of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus inhibitors to importin-α receptors explored with all-atom replica exchange molecular dynamics. J. Phys. Chem. B 127(14): 3175-3186, doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c00429

20. Khayat, E., Delfing, B. M., Laracuente, X. E., Olson, A., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2023) Lysine acetylation changes the mechanism of Aβ25-35 peptide binding and dimerization in the DMPC bilayer. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 14(3): 494-505, doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.2c00722

21. Vergilio, J., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2022) De novo transmembrane aggregation of Aβ10-40 peptides in anionic lipid bilayer. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 62(23): 6228-6241, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c01192

22. Bowers, S. R., Klimov, D. K., & Lockhart, C. (2022) Mechanisms of binding of antimicrobial peptide PGLa to DMPC/DMPG membrane. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 62(6): 1525-1537, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c01518

23. Khayat, E., Lockhart, C., Delfing, B. M., Smith, A. K., & Klimov, D. K. (2021) Met35 oxidation hinders Aβ25-35 peptide aggregation within the dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 12(17): 3225-3236, doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00407

24. Siwy, C. M., Delfing, B. M., Lockhart, C., Smith, A. K., & Klimov, D. K. (2021) Partitioning of Aβ peptide fragments into blood–brain barrier mimetic bilayer. J. Phys. Chem. B 125(10): 2658-2676, doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c11253

25. Lockhart, C., Smith, A. K., & Klimov, D. K. (2020) Three popular force fields predict consensus mechanism of Aβ peptide binding to the DMPC bilayer. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 60(4): 2282-2293, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00096

26. Smith, A. K., Khayat, E., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2019) Do cholesterol and sphingomyelin change the mechanism of Aβ25-35 peptide binding to zwitterionic bilayer? J. Chem. Inf. Model. 59(12): 5207-5217, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b00763

27. Lockhart, C., Smith, A. K., & Klimov, D. K. (2019) Methionine oxidation changes the mechanism of Aβ peptide binding to the DMPC bilayer. Sci. Rep. 9(5947): 1-12, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42304-9

28. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2017) Cholesterol changes the mechanism of Aβ peptide binding to the DMPC bilayer. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 57(10): 2554-2565, doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.7b00431

29. Siwy, C. M., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2017) Is the conformational ensemble of Alzheimer's Aβ10-40 peptide force field dependent? PLoS Comput. Biol. 13(1): e1005314, doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005314

30. Smith, A. K., Lockhart, C., & Klimov, D. K. (2016) Does replica exchange with solute tempering efficiently sample Aβ peptide conformational ensembles? J. Chem. Theory Comput. 12(10): 5201-5214, doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.6b00660

31. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2016) The Alzheimer's disease Aβ peptide binds to the anionic DMPS lipid bilayer. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1858(6): 1118-1128, doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2016.03.001

32. Lockhart, C. (2015) All-atom explicit-solvent replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations of the Alzheimer's disease Aβ monomer. Dissertation. George Mason University.

33. Lockhart, C., O’Connor, J., Armentrout, S., & Klimov, D. K. (2015) Greedy replica exchange algorithm for heterogeneous computing grids. J. Mol. Model. 21(9): 243, doi: 10.1007/s00894-015-2763-5

34. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2015) Calcium enhances binding of Aβ monomer to DMPC bilayer. Biophys. J. 108(7): 1807-1818, doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.03.001

35. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2014) Binding of Aβ peptide creates lipid density depression in DMPC bilayer. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1838(10): 2678-2688, doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2014.07.010

36. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2014) Alzheimer's Aβ10-40 peptide binds and penetrates DMPC bilayer: an isobaric-isothermal replica exchange molecular dynamics study. J. Phys. Chem. B 118(10): 2638-2648, doi: 10.1021/jp412153s

37. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2013) Revealing hidden helix propensity in Aβ peptide by molecular dynamics simulations. J. Phys. Chem. B 117(40): 12030-12038, doi: 10.1021/jp407705j

38. Lockhart, C. & Klimov, D. K. (2012) Molecular interactions of Alzheimer's biomarker FDDNP with Aβ peptide. Biophys. J. 103(11): 2341-2351, doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2012.10.003

39. Lockhart, C., Kim, S., & Klimov, D. K. (2012) Explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations of Aβ peptide interacting with ibuprofen ligands. J. Phys. Chem. B 116(43): 12922-12932, doi: 10.1021/jp306208n

40. Lockhart, C., Kim, S., Kumar, R., & Klimov, D. K. (2011) Does amino acid sequence determine the properties of Aβ dimer? J. Chem. Phys. 135: 14915, doi: 10.1063/1.3610427