CAO Yuansheng

Assistant Professor

Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 100084

Email: yscao@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Tel: (010)62782614

Education

2011/9-2016/7 School of Physics, Peking University, Ph.D Mentor: Ouyang Qi, Wang Hongli

2007/9-2011/7 Peking University, B.S. in Physics

Employment

2023/1-Present Department of Physics, Tsinghua University Assistant Professor

2016/11-2022/12 Physics Department, UCSD Postdoctoral Research Associate with Wouter-Jan Rappel

Research Statement

I have a broad interest in interdisciplinary research programs focusing on theoretical and computational approaches to understand the complex spatiotemporal behaviors in biology. My current research topics include:

1.Explore the relationship between fluctuations and biological functions in molecular and cellular levels by using stochastic thermodynamics

2.Modeling molecular machines based on structural data

3.Multi-cellular interactions and motion with computational models

We always have openings for excellent postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergrates.

Selected Publications

1. Y. Cao, H. Wang, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, The free-energy cost of accurate biochemical oscillations, Nature Physics 11, 772 (2015)

2. C. Fei, Y. Cao, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, Design principles for enhancing phase sensitivity and suppressing phase fluctuations simultaneously in biochemical oscillatory systems, Nature Communications 9, 1434 (2018)

3.D. Zhang, Y. Cao, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, The energy cost and optimal design for synchronization of coupled molecular oscillators, Nature Physics 16, 95–100 (2020)

4.J. Kim, Y. Cao, C. Eddy, H. Levine, W.-J. Rappel, B. Sun, The mechanics and dynamics of cancer cells sensing noisy 3D contact guidance, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A (2021)

5. Y. Cao, E. Ghabache, W.-J. Rappel, Plasticity of cell migration resulting from mechanochemical coupling, eLife (2019)

6.E. Ghabache, Y. Cao, Y. Miao, A. Groisman, P. Devreotes W.-J. Rappel, Coupling traction force patterns and actomyosin wave dynamics reveals mechanics of cell motion, Mol. Syst. Biol. (2021)

7.Y. Tu, Y. Cao, Design principles and optimal performance for molecular motors under realistic constraints, Phys. Rev. E 97, 022403 (2018)

8.Y. Cao, T. Li, Y. Tu, Modeling bacterial flagellar motor with new structure information: rotational dynamics of two interacting protein nano-rings, Front. Microbiol. (2022)