Dr. Amir Barati Farimani

Biography

Dr. Barati Farimani received his Ph.D. in 2015 in Mechanical Science Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his thesis focused on detecting sensing biological molecules using nanopores. His work extensively utilized atomistic simulations to illuminate DNA sensing detection physics within biological solid-state nanopores. Following his Ph.D., he joined Professor Vijay Pande’s lab at Stanford as a postdoctoral researcher, where he combined machine learning with molecular dynamics to elucidate conformational changes in G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), particularly focusing on Mu-Opioid Receptors to elucidate the free energy landscape and activation mechanisms. At Carnegie Mellon University, the Barati Lab is broadly interested in the application of machine learning and data science to molecular dynamics simulations, especially in addressing problems in health and bioengineering. The lab's main research theme lies at the interface of bioengineering and computational techniques, combining molecular dynamics simulations with statistical learning to understand and predict the properties and interactions of biomolecules. Specifically, the lab investigates the recognition of biomolecules and their interactions with synthetic materials through statistical learning techniques, as well as the understanding of small molecule-protein interactions through dimensionality reduction of high-dimensional time-series data obtained from molecular dynamics simulations.

Research Interests

Awards