Areas of Focus
- Interdisciplinary research in physics and biology, focusing on movement and information transmission in living organisms
- Stochastic thermodynamics to explore fluctuations and biological functions at cellular and molecular scales
- Molecular machines, especially the function and structure of molecular motors
- Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation methods to explore multicellular interactions and motion
Work Experience
- 2023/01-present - Tsinghua University, Department of Physics - Assistant Professor
- 2016/11-2022/12 - University of California, San Diego - Postdoctoral Researcher, Supervisor: Wouter-Jan Rappel
Academic Background & Achievements
- 2011/09-2016/07 PhD: Peking University, School of Physics, Supervisors: Qi Ouyang, Hongli Wang
- 2007/09-2011/07 Bachelor: Peking University, Yuanpei College
Publications
- The free-energy cost of accurate biochemical oscillations, Y. Cao, H. Wang, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, 2015
- Design principles for enhancing phase sensitivity and suppressing phase fluctuations simultaneously in biochemical oscillatory systems, C. Fei, Y. Cao, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, 2018
- The energy cost and optimal design for synchronization of coupled molecular oscillators, D. Zhang, Y. Cao, Q. Ouyang, Y. Tu, 2020
- The mechanics and dynamics of cancer cells sensing noisy 3D contact guidance, J. Kim, Y. Cao, C. Eddy, H. Levine, W.-J. Rappel, B. Sun, 2021
- Plasticity of cell migration resulting from mechanochemical coupling, Y. Cao, E. Ghabache, W.-J. Rappel, 2019
- Coupling traction force patterns and actomyosin wave dynamics reveals mechanics of cell motion, E. Ghabache, Y. Cao, Y. Miao, A. Groisman, P. Devreotes W.-J. Rappel, 2021
- Design principles and optimal performance for molecular motors under realistic constraints, Y. Tu, Y. Cao, 2018
- Modeling bacterial flagellar motor with new structure information: rotational dynamics of two interacting protein nano-rings, Y. Cao, T. Li, Y. Tu, 2022
