Faculty
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar
Prof. Gül Zerze received her Bachelor’s (2010) and Master’s (2013) degrees in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (Turkey) as a fellow of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. She received her Ph.D. in 2017 in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University. She continued her work as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, where she was named a Writing in Science and Engineering Postdoctoral Fellow and a Rising Star of Chemical Engineering (MIT). As a student, she was the recipient of awards including the TSCR's Peter Salamon Award, the Biophysical Society’s Research Achievement Award and Education Committee Award, Chevron Corporation’s Recognizing Excellence Award, and the AICHE COMSEF Graduate Student Award. In 2021, she received a Recruitment of First-Time Tenure Track Faculty Members award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to join the University of Houston Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2022. She is running a 100% computational lab in the field of Computational Molecular Science to develop physics-based, data-driven platforms for design and discovery of novel materials, drugs, and diagnostics to improve human health.
My research program aims at bringing a fundamental understanding of the biomolecular self-assembly that are implicated in oncogenic and neurodegenerative diseases. We are currently working on the biomolecular self-assembly that are predominantly disordered, such as liquid-like condensates; the biomolecular self-assembly that are regulated by disordered and heterogenous biomolecular targets including intrinsically disordered proteins and/or ribonucleic acids; the interplay between polymorphism, disordered intermediates and the underlying free energy surfaces; and the role of structural disorder in virulence factors that can evade immune system. The overarching goal of our research program is to improve human health by developing computational platforms that enable design of novel materials, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostic tools.
- Graduate students: Ayush Gupta, Eduardo Ayala Medrano, Karim Malekzadeh, Kosar Rahimi, Nehil Shreyash
- Undergraduate students: Melissa Unlu
- Postdoctoral research associates: Dr. Alexander Silalahi, Dr. Asghar Sepehri, Dr. Atanu Baksi
NSF CAREER Award (2025)
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Scholar in Cancer Research (2021)
Writing in Science & Engineering (WSE) Fellow, Princeton University (Feb 2020 – Dec 2021)
Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) Peter Salamon Award (2020)
Rising Star of Chemical Engineering (MIT) (2018)
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE) Computational and Molecular Science and Engineering Forum (COMSEF), Graduate Student Award (2016)
Biophysical Society, Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA) (2016)
Biophysical Society, Education Committee Travel Award (2016)
Chevron Oil Company Recognizing Excellence and Achievement (REACH) Award (2015)
METU Graduate Courses Performance Award, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences (2012)
“Hasan Orbey” Excellence in Research Award for MSc degree (METU), 2011
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Fellow (Sep 2010-Aug 2011)
Early Career Board of the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2024
Selected Publications
- Zerze G.H., “Optimizing the Martini 3 force field reveals the effects of the intricate balance between protein-water interaction strength and salt concentration on biomolecular condensate formation.” Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, (in press) [DOI], 2023
- Zerze: Rahimi K., Piaggi P.M., Zerze G.H., “Comparison of On-the-Fly Probability Enhanced Sampling and Parallel Tempering Combined with Metadynamics for Atomistic Simulations of RNA Tetraloop Folding” Journal of Physical Chemistry 127(21), 4722–4732 [DOI], 2023
- Zerze G.H., Piaggi P.M., Debenedetti P.G., “A Computational Study of RNA Tetraloop Thermodynamics, Including Misfolded State.” Journal of Physical Chemistry, 25(50), 13865–13895 [DOI], 2021
- Zerze G.H., Stillinger F.H., Debenedetti P.G., “Thermodynamics of DNA hybridization from atomistic simulations” Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 125(3), 771–779 [DOI], 2021
- Conicella A.E., Dignon G.L., Zerze G.H., Schmidt H.B., D’Ordine A.M., Kim Y.C., Rohatgi R., Ayala Y.M., Mittal J., Fawzi N.L., “TDP-43 α-helical structure tunes liquid-liquid phase separation and function.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 117(11) 5883–5885 [DOI], 2020
- Debenedetti P.G., Sciortino F., Zerze G.H. , “Second Critical Point in Two Realistic Models of Water.” Science, 369(6501), 289–292 [DOI], 2020
- Zerze G.H., Stillinger F.H., Debenedetti P.G., “The handedness of DNA assembly around carbon nanotubes is determined by the chirality of DNA.” Journal of Physical Chemistry B 124(26) 5362–5371 [DOI], 2020