(6ks) Theory and Modeling of Biopolymers and Bio-Inspired Soft Materials

My research concerns the understanding of biopolymers and the design of bio-inspired soft materials using theoretical and computational tools. Life is largely materialized by biopolymers such as proteins and DNA. The understanding of these biomolecules and their interactions, as well as their responses to environment is not only crucial for human health, but also a great source to inspire the development of novel artificial materials aiming to solve real-world problems such as water purification and clean energy. While synthetic polymers have been widely used in electronics, medicine and energy devices, there is still a huge gap between artificial and biological employments of polymeric materials. The performance of synthetic polymers is often limited by the lack of delicate molecular design and thence precise control of the functional structures. My research endeavor will be devoted to the optimization of soft materials by learning from nature. I will apply my multiscale modeling skills to investigate complex biological processes such as chromatin folding and nucleocytoplasmic transportation, and to extract guiding principles for the rational design of smart artificial materials.

Research experience:

• Modeling of the three-dimensional genomic organization
• Theory of contact scaling for random fractal polymers
• Molecular theory of the nuclear pore complex
• Design of smart artificial nanopores/nanochannels
• Investigation of the curvature effect on the micro-phase-separation of end-tethered polymers
• Enhanced sampling of free energy landscape of patterning polymers
• Non-equilibrium statistical theory of liquid-solid friction and flow boundary
• Simulation of hydration, hydrophobic interaction, and specific ion effects
• Simulation of Brownian motion and diffusion near liquid-solid interfaces
• Simulation of acoustic biosensors

Teaching Interests:

With abroad educational background covering Engineering Physics, Materials Science, and Biomedical Engineering, I will be comfortable with teaching many undergraduate-level courses including Thermodynamics, Statistical mechanics, Fluid mechanics, Quantum mechanics, Polymer physics, Numerical methods and molecular modeling. I am also interested in developing graduate-level courses focusing on specific topics based on my research experience. One such course could be “Bio-inspired materials”, in which I will deliver students with recent breakthroughs in this growing field, and the exciting advancements for practical applications.

Selected Publications:

1. Huang*, Y. Li, A. Shim, R. Virk, V. Agrawal, A. Eshein, R. Nap, L. Almassalha, V. Backman* and I. Szleifer*, “Physical and data structure of 3D genome”, bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/596262 (2019), under review of Science Advances (*co-corresponding author)
2. Huang, M. Tagliazucchi, S.H. Park, Y. Rabin and I. Szleifer, “Molecular model of the nuclear pore complex reveals a thermoreversible FG-network with distinct territories occupied by different FG motifs”, bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/568865 (2019), under review of Biophysical Journal
3. Tagliazucchi, K. Huang and I. Szleifer, “Routes for nanoparticle translocation through polymer-brush-modified nanopores”, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 30, 274006 (2018)
4. Huang and I. Szleifer, “Design of multifunctional nanogates in response to multiple external stimuli using amphiphilic copolymer”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139, 6422-6430 (2017)
5. Huang, S. Gast, C. D. Ma, N. Abbott and I. Szlufarska, “Comparison between the free and immobilized ion effects on hydrophobic interactions: a molecular dynamics study”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 119, 13152-13159 (2015)
6. Huang* and I. Szlufarska*, “Effect of interfaces on nearby Brownian motion”, Nature Communications, 6:8558 doi: 10.1038/ncomms9558 (2015) (*co-corresponding author)
7. Huang* and I. Szlufarska*, “Green-Kubo relation for friction at liquid-solid interfaces”, Physical Review E 89, 032119 (2014) (*co-corresponding author)
8. Huang and I. Szlufarska, “Friction and slip at solid-liquid interface in vibrational systems”, Langmuir 28, 17302 (2012)