Research
We study how proteins become machines, how water participates in function, how molecular systems carry information, and how living organization grows across scales.
Protein machines
How does an amino-acid sequence become a deformable machine? We seek the mechanical architecture that turns local interactions into recognition, allostery, catalysis, and large-scale motion.
How do proteins deform to function? Viscoelastic enzymes Proteins as evolving matter Sequence to function Deformation landscapes
Water is part of the machine
Near proteins and membranes, water is not a passive solvent. Geometry, charge, chemistry, and motion organize it into an interfacial medium that can transmit, reshape, and dissipate interactions.
Quantum structures in classical matter
Flat bands, quasiparticles, topology, and rotation-space geometry are not exclusively quantum. We ask how these structures arise in hydrodynamic and soft matter, and what dynamics they make possible.
Trajectoids Hydrodynamic flat bands Rotation-space walks Soft-matter topology
Information, codes, and errors
Information becomes biological only when matter reads, compares, corrects, and acts on it. We study decoding by the ribosome, sequence recognition by RecA, the emergence of molecular codes, and the birth of genes from non-genic sequence.
Ribosome decoding What is the genetic code? Coding transition Rate-distortion codes Conformational proofreading RecA homology search Gene birth
Machines making machines
Proteins build cells; cells build organisms; organisms rebuild the conditions of their own persistence. Living organization combines cascades of construction with loops of self-reference: machines make machines, while their products act back on the processes that make them.
What Is Life? Cascade of machines Self-referential loops Protein–DNA computation