Associate Professor
UT
Research
Our focus is to understand the stability and the dynamics of mechanical structures of biological interests: from the level of single biomolecules to sub-cellular assembly for both equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium systems. Currently, by using advanced modeling methods and large scaling computer simulations, we study challenging problems such as biofuel & biomass conversion, non-equilibrium dynamics of cellular structures, statistics of biopolymer configurations in extreme environments, signaling by post-translational modifications.
Education
- PhD, Physics-Biophysics, University of California–San Diego (2002)
- MS, Physics, University of California–San Diego (2000)
- BS, Physics, Tsinghua University (1997)
Publications
Shen, T., Langan, P., French, A.D., Johnson, G.P., & Gnanakaran, S. Conformational Flexibility of Soluble Cellulose Oligomers: Chain Length and Temperature Dependence. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 14786-14794 (2009).
Lu, T., Shen, T., Bennett, M., Wolynes, P.G., & Hasty, J. Phenotypic variability of growing cellular populations, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 18982-18987 (2007).
Shen, T., Zong, C., Hamelberg, D., McCammon, J.A., & Wolynes, P.G. The folding energy landscape and phosphorylation: Modeling the conformational switch of the NFAT regulatory domain, FASEB J. 19, 1389-1395 (2005).
Shen, T. & Wolynes, P.G. Stability and dynamics of crystals and glasses of motorized particles, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 8547-8550 (2004).
Shen, T., Tai, K., Henchman, R.H., & McCammon, J.A. Molecular dynamics of acetylcholinesterase, Acc. Chem. Res. 35, 332-340 (2002).