Wenwei Zheng

Wenwei Zheng is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University (ASU), affiliated with the School of Applied Sciences and Arts within the CISA initiative. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from Rice University (2017), followed by postdoctoral research at the NIH. His research focuses on computational methods to study intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and their roles in membraneless organelles and pathological fibril formation. Key areas include liquid-liquid phase separation and protein interaction networks. Dr. Zheng leads the Zheng Biophysics Lab, leveraging grants from NIH-NIGMS, NSF, and NVIDIA GPU resources. He teaches courses in chemistry and scientific computing at ASU.

Research interests emphasize biophysical modeling of IDPs, with recent work exploring salt effects on conformation, phosphorylation impacts on phase separation, and drug discovery targeting disordered regions. Over 50 publications span journals like PNAS, ACS Central Science, and Journal of Physical Chemistry. Collaborations include projects on FUS protein toxicity and estrogen receptor disorder. His lab's 2024 advancements include studies on α-synuclein aggregation and transient protein interactions.

Grants include a 5-year NIH R35 MIRA award (2022) and NSF support for biodegradation studies. Notable achievements include Anton2 supercomputing allocations and NVIDIA GPU donations. The lab actively recruits students interested in computational biophysics and protein dynamics.