Dr. Eugene Shakhnovich

Biography

Professor Eugene Shakhnovich directs research aimed at understanding the basic principles of protein folding and the structural and dynamical properties of complex polymer systems. His research addresses critical questions such as the necessity of unique structures for polypeptide chains, the nature of the structure encoded in amino acid sequences—a key aspect of the 'prediction problem'—and the finite time it takes for polypeptide chains to assume unique structures, often referred to as the 'Levinthal paradox.' The approach includes the utilization of modern analytical methods of statistical mechanics, replicas, and the renormalization group, complemented by numerical studies of non-traditional lattice models that exhaustively enumerate conformations. His interests extend to the microdomain structure of random polymer melts and diffusion-controlled processes within living cells. Current projects focus on the development of a new algorithm to predict stable conformations of proteins, quantitative theories of protein stability that consider major interactions among protein molecules, and Monte Carlo simulations of polypeptide folding.

Research Interests

Experience