Alvin Yu

Alvin Yu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine. He leads the Computational Biophysics Group (CBG), which develops theoretical and computational methods to study complex biological systems at the intersection of physics, biology, and chemistry. The lab collaborates closely with experimentalists to achieve a molecular understanding of life’s essential machinery.

• Research Interests: Computational biophysics, HIV capsid dynamics, ionotropic glutamate receptors, coarse-grained simulations, protein conformational changes, molecular interactions in viral systems.
• Key Article Trends: Focus on HIV-1 capsid self-assembly mechanisms, ligand-gated ion channels, and computational modeling of viral and receptor systems. His work spans multiscale and atomistic simulations to uncover molecular pathways in virology and neuroscience.
• Students: Advises Lorenzo Foglia, a PhD student contributing to the lab's research.
• Labs/Teams: Heads the CBG lab, which actively posts research updates, job openings, and publications on their website.