News

Group Updates

Announcements, publications, presentations, awards, and group milestones from the Lin Research Group.

Semester-End Celebration

We celebrated the end of the semester with an escape room party. Thank you all for your achievements and contributions!

Lin Receives NSF CAREER Award

The Lin group received an NSF CAREER Award supporting research on epigenetic principles underlying chromatin organization and liquid-liquid phase separation.

Thomas Wins McCormick Award

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...

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Thomas Thornton Receives Ph.D. Offer

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...

End-of-Year Group BBQ

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!

Lin Group Attended Carolina Biophysics Symposium

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).

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Lin Leads Discussion at NCEMS

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...

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New Publication in eLife

Introducing IDEA — a new method for predicting sequence-specific protein-DNA binding affinities — is now published in eLife. Good job, Yafan!

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Irene Awarded NIH CLTP Scholar

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!

Team Spring Get-together

We wrapped up the semester with a fun spring trip. Looking forward to a productive summer!

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Welcome, Chenshu!

Chenshu Yang, a first-year Bioinformatics student, is joining our group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome aboard!

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New Publication in Biochemistry

Our paper on acetylation-modulated chromatin structural transition is now published in Biochemistry. Good job, Rina!

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Yafan Awarded CMI Young Scholars Award

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...

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Thomas Awarded PPEP Scholarship

Congratulations to Thomas Thornton on being awarded the Provost’s Professional Experience Program (PPEP) scholarship to support his undergraduate research. Well done!

First group picture

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.

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Welcome, Irene and Thomas!

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!

Rina presented at ACTC 2024

Rina presented her work at the American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry (ACTC). Well done, Rina!

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New Publication in Science Advances

“RACER-m leverages structural features for sparse T cell specificity prediction” is now published in Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0161

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Welcome, Eduardo!

We welcome Eduardo Cisneros, a bioinformatics graduate student, to join our group. Looking forward to our exciting work!

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Welcome, Yafan!

We welcome Yafan Zhang, a bioinformatics graduate student, to join our group. Welcome on board! Let’s move the boat together!

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New Seed Funding

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...

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Welcome, Meggie!

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!

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Welcome, Aaron and Althaf!

Aaron Norman and Althaf Hussain Salavudeen will join our group as undergraduate researchers. Excited to explore the new scientific fronts with both of you!

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Welcome, Rushi!

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!

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Wecome, Rina!

Rina Li will join our group as a graduate researcher. Looking forward to working with you!

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Welcome to the Lin Research Group

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!