The goal of our research is to expand the fundamental understanding of self-assembly in biological systems and design novel materials to make impactful contributions to bioengineering applications. To do this, we develop and apply novel multiscale computational models that are anchored in all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, coarse-graining techniques, theory, and experiments from collaborators. 

At the moment, we have the following four general research directions:

Biomolecular condensates and chromatin organization

In this thrust area, we focus on Mechanistic Insights for:

• Discovering the molecular-level mechanisms for the formation of biomolecular condensates

• Deciphering the role of biomolecular condensates in genome organization

• Elucidating the molecular determinants of biomolecular condensate structural and dynamical properties

Biomolecular condensates and their link to age-related diseases

In this thrust area, we focus on Material Properties for:

• Unraveling the molecular-level signatures of condensates prone to aggregation, aging, and its link to diseases

• Manipulating of phase behavior to design biomaterials

• Designing small molecules for condensate-linked diseases 

Supramolecular Engineering: Synthetic condensates with programmable material properties

In this thrust area, we focus on Materials Design for:

•  Identification of suitable building blocks, controlling assembly pathways, developing physics-constrained inverse design strategy

Multiscale models and simulation approaches

In this thrust area, we focus on Method development for:

• Integrating experimental data to build, validate, and interrogate/improve atomistic and coarse-grained computational models

• Accurate prediction of structural and thermophysical properties, and phase behavior