Research Interests
I am interested in how mechanical forces play roles in molecules and cells. I use computational methods to study molecular motors and related cellular functions. One important molecular motor is myosin, which converts ATP chemical energy into mechanical work such as muscle contractions or actin-based transports. It is important to link the structural information and the experimental data together by suitable computational models to understand this mechanochemical energy transduction. I am using kinetic models, mechanochemical models (advection-reaction-diffusion equations) and atomic-based models to study myosin. Specifically I am interested in the correlations between the opening/closing of actin binding cleft and the position of switch I as well as between the lever arm angle and the position of switch II.

Degrees
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002
M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998
B.S., National Taiwan University, 1993

Representative Publications
Zheng, W., Liao, J.-C.*, Brooks, B.R., Doniach, S. (2006) Toward the mechanism of dynamical couplings and translocation in Hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase using elastic network model. (submitted to Journal of Molecular Biology). *as a co-first author

Adelman, J.L., Jeong, Y.-J., Liao, J.-C., Patel, G., Kim, D.-E., Oster, G., Patel, S. S. (2006) Mechanochemistry of transcription termination factor Rho. Molecular Cell, 22, 611-621.

Xing, J., Liao, J.-C., Oster, G. (2005) Making ATP, PNAS, 102(46), 16539-16546.

Liao, J.-C., Jeong, Y.-J., Kim, D.-E., Patel, S.S., Oster, G. (2005) Mechanochemistry of T7 DNA helicase. Journal of Molecular Biology, 350(3), 452-475.

Liao, J.-C., Oster, G. (2004) The engines of biomolecular motors. Proceedings of NANO2004, ASME Integrated Nanosystems: Design, Synthesis and Applications, Pasadena, California.

Liao, J.-C., Sun, S., Chandler, D., Oster, G. (2004) The conformational states of Mg-ATP in water. European Biophysics Journal, 33, 29-37.

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