Jin Yu

Biography

Jin Yu, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the NSF-Simons Center of Multiscale Cell Fate Research, and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Yu studies the molecular mechanisms of gene transcription and replication through computational modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, focusing on how polymerase enzymes move along DNA and RNA, select nucleotides with high fidelity, and respond to mechanical forces. Her work combines atomistic simulations with kinetic modeling to reveal the physical principles governing protein-DNA interactions, from transcription factor search dynamics to viral RNA polymerase function.

Yu has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles examining molecular machines involved in genetic processes. Her research has addressed nucleotide selectivity in viral RNA polymerases including SARS-CoV-2, stepping mechanisms of transcription factors along DNA, and fidelity control in T7 RNA polymerase. She has also investigated DNA supercoiling dynamics, helicase unwinding mechanisms, and the mechanochemistry of viral DNA packaging motors. Her computational approaches span multiple scales, from quantum mechanical and atomic calculations to coarse-grained diffusion models.

Before joining UC Irvine in 2019, Yu served as Principal Investigator in the Complex System Research Division at Beijing Computational Science Research Center from 2012 to 2019. She completed postdoctoral training with George Oster in Molecular and Cellular Biology and with the Bustamante laboratory in the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley from 2007 to 2011. Yu received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 under the supervision of Klaus Schulten.

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007
• M.S. in Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007
• M.S. in Physics, Tsinghua University, 2001
• B.S. in Physics, Tsinghua University, 1998

Distinctions

• US Biophysical Society Early Career Committee member, 2018-2021
• Excellent Graduate Advisor Award, Beijing CSRC, Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, 2019
• Chinese Biophysical Society Single-molecule Biophysics Committee member, 2015-2018
• Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund Scholarship, 2010-2011
• Biophysical Society Annual Meeting CPOW Travel Award, 2010-2011
• UC Berkeley Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2007-2010
• Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship, 2007-2010
• Guanghua Scholarship of Tsinghua University, 2000