News
Announcements, publications, presentations, awards, and group milestones from the Lin Research Group.
Yafan Zhang attended the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology conference in Washington, D.C., where he was selected to give an oral presentation on our biophysics-informed, data-driven framework for predicting protein–nucleic acid binding affinities.
The Lin group received a new NSF award supporting biophysics-informed AI models for protein-nucleic acid prediction and high-affinity oligonucleotide aptamer design.
The Lin Group attended the 2026 Southeast Symposium on Genome Integrity and Chromatin Regulation at UNC Charlotte, where Rina Li presented her research and Irene Silvernail received a poster award.
We celebrated the end of the semester with an escape room party. Thank you all for your achievements and contributions!
The Lin group received an NSF CAREER Award supporting research on epigenetic principles underlying chromatin organization and liquid-liquid phase separation.
Congratulations to our graduating undergraduate researcher, Thomas Thornton, on receiving the 2026 McCormick Award, the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s highest honor for undergraduate research! Thomas presented his award talk, titled “Structure-Based Modeling of...
Irene Silvernail earned first place in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences division at the 2026 Graduate Student Research Symposium, one of 9 first-place awards among 200 participants. Well done! We are very proud of...
Congratulations to our undergraduate researcher, Thomas Thornton, on receiving a Ph.D. offer from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University. It has been such a pleasure having you in our lab, and...
Irene and Eduardo presented their work at the 2026 Integrative Symposium of NC State Training Grants. Great job!
We hosted a BBQ party to celebrate the end of the year. Grateful for everyone’s hard work, and looking forward to an exciting 2026!
The Lin group attended the 2025 Carolina Biophysics Symposium, where we presented our latest research on predictions of protein-DNA (Lin) and protein-RNA (Cisneros) interactions, as well as simulations of chromatin liquid-liquid phase separation (Silvernail).
Xingcheng led a focused discussion at the 2025 NSF National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) Summit on Synergizing AI and MD Simulation for Enhanced Biomolecular Functional Prediction. It...
Introducing IDEA — a new method for predicting sequence-specific protein-DNA binding affinities — is now published in eLife. Good job, Yafan!
Congratulations to Irene Silvernail on being selected as the NIH Chemistry of Life Training Program (CLTP) scholar — well deserved! We’re excited about our future work!
We wrapped up the semester with a fun spring trip. Looking forward to a productive summer!
Thomas Thornton presented his poster at this year’s McCormick Undergraduate Research Symposium. Great job, Thomas!
Congratulations to Chenshu Yang and Irene Silvernail on winning the GGA summer research team mini-grant! This precious opportunity will support Chenshu in her undergraduate research under Irene’s mentorship.
Chenshu Yang, a first-year Bioinformatics student, is joining our group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome aboard!
Our paper on acetylation-modulated chromatin structural transition is now published in Biochemistry. Good job, Rina!
Congratulations to Yafan Zhang on receiving the 2025 Travel Award from the Genetics and Genomics Academy!
Congratulations to Eduardo Cisneros on receiving the prestigious GAANN Molecular Biotechnology Fellowship. Well deserved!
Eduardo and Yafan presented their posters at the 2024 Symposium on RNA Biology XV: RNA Tool and Target. Great discussions during the symposium!
Congratulations to Yafan Zhang on winning the Young Scholars Program in Comparative Medicine Institute for his proposed research projects, together with Md Abul Shahid from Dr. Yang Zhang group. We Looking forward to more...
Congratulations to Thomas Thornton on being awarded the Provost’s Professional Experience Program (PPEP) scholarship to support his undergraduate research. Well done!
After one year of being busy with science, we finally have our first group picture! From left to right:Eduardo, Thomas, Xingcheng, Yafan, Rina, Irene.
Irene Silvernail and Thomas Thornton will be joining our team to pursue their graduate and undergraduate research. Welcome aboard! We look forward to working with you to explore exciting science!
Eduardo and Yafan presented their latest works at the Bioinformatics Symposium in honor of Dr. Bruce Weir, the former director. Well done, Eduardo and Yafan!
Rina presented her work at the American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry (ACTC). Well done, Rina!
“RACER-m leverages structural features for sparse T cell specificity prediction” is now published in Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0161
We welcome Eduardo Cisneros, a bioinformatics graduate student, to join our group. Looking forward to our exciting work!
Meggie Cangu and Rushi Faldu have successfully completed their undergraduate research and presented at the NC State Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. Well done!
We welcome Yafan Zhang, a bioinformatics graduate student, to join our group. Welcome on board! Let’s move the boat together!
The Lin Research Group was awarded the seed grant from the Genetics and Genomics Academy of NCSU, in collaboration with Dr. Hong Wang and Dr. Yang Zhang. We are grateful for this opportunity to...
Meggie Cangu will join our group, supported by the NCSU OUR Federal Word-Study (FWS) Research award. Congratulations, Meggie! We are thrilled to work with you!
Aaron Norman and Althaf Hussain Salavudeen will join our group as undergraduate researchers. Excited to explore the new scientific fronts with both of you!
Rushi Faldu will join our group as an undergraduate researcher, supported by the NCSU OUR Research Assistant Program. Congratulations, Rushi! Excited about our research ahead!
Rina Li will join our group as a graduate researcher. Looking forward to working with you!
Our group is highly interdisciplinary! We will leverage physicochemical simulations and information theory to delve deep into the world of genome and epigenome. Join us on this exciting journey!
