Areas of specialty
- Development of advanced computational methods and their applications to the study of biomolecules and biomaterials.
Research in the Chen lab currently focuses on five key areas:
- Development of advanced sampling techniques and accurate implicit solvent models, particularly multi-scale enhanced sampling (MSES) method and balanced implicit solvent force fields;
- Intrinsically disordered proteins: structure, function and disease;
- Multi-scale simulation of fibril growth and nucleation;
- Computational characterization and design of novel functional peptides; and
- Advanced software for molecular modeling of small angle scattering.
Our general interests are mainly in the development of advanced computational methods and their applications to the study of biomolecular structure, dynamics and function. A particular emphasis has been on understanding how intrinsic disorder of proteins mediates function and how such functional mechanisms may be altered in human diseases.
Research:
- Development of advanced sampling techniques and accurate implicit solvent models
- Intrinsically disordered proteins: structure, function and disease
- Multi-scale simulation of fibril growth and nucleation
- Gating and pore-sensor coupling mechanisms of channel proteins.
- Computational characterization and design of novel functional peptides
- Advanced software for molecular modeling of small angle scattering
Current focus areas:
- Advanced sampling techniques and accurate implicit solvent models
- Intrinsically disordered proteins: structure, function and disease
- Multi-scale simulation of fibril growth and nucleation
- Gating and regulation of BK channels and TMEM16 family proteins
- Computational characterization and design of novel functional peptides
- Advanced software for molecular modeling of small angle scattering
