The Sosnick Group at The University of Chicago

The Sosnick Group strives to characterize the general principles that guide protein folding and dynamics. We combine multiple experimental and computational approaches to characterize the behavior of proteins in diverse contexts

SAXS analysis - collapsed or expanded

Given small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) dataset for an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP), we have developed an analysis method that can determine both the dimension of the ensemble as well as the quality of the solvent (i.e. the extent of self-interactions in the IDP).

Protein Folding - the 70% Rule

We have found that for many small 2-state proteins, the rate-limiting step of folding - the transition state - has ~70% of the native topology, according to the relative contact order.

Molecular Dynamics on your laptop!

Wouldn't it be nice to have physically realistic MD trajectories of protein dynamics without needing cpu-weeks/months of simulations? We have developed an MD engine that can reversibly fold some proteins up to 97 amino acids in cpu-days without requiring the use of fragments, homology or evolution.

Ph.D. 03/22/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Julia Shangguan for successfully defending her thesis!

Ph.D. 01/22/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Yiheng Wu for successfully defending his thesis!

Paper Published 08/06/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Xiaoxuan Lin, Dr. Andrew Molina, Julia Shangguan, and Dr. Ruofan Chen on having their recent paper published, "Practical Tips for the Application of HDX-MS to Membrane Proteins, Biomolecular Condensates, and Weak Protein Binders" published in JASMS!

Congratulations 03/27/2025

Congratulations to Tobin for being named a 2024 AAAS Fellow for his contributions to the field of protein folding!

Ph.D. 03/17/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Abigail Schroeter for successfully defending her thesis!

Congratulations 10/09/2024

Congratulations to John on sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for protein structure prediction!

More News

Protein Folding

Predicting Folding Dynamics

Photoswitchable allosteric proteins

Membrane Proteins

Psi analysis

Conformational Entropy

X. Lin*,A.V. Molina*, J. Shangguan*, R. Chen, T.R. Sosnick, "Practical Tips for the Application of HDX-MS to Membrane Proteins, Biomolecular Condensates, and Weak Protein Binders" J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 36, 1575-87 (2025)

Practical Tips for the Application of HDX-MS to Membrane Proteins, Biomolecular Condensates, and Weak Protein Binders

T.R. Sosnick, M.C. Baxa, "Collapse and Protein Folding: Should We Be Surprised That Biothermodynamics Works So Well?" Annu. Rev. Biophys 54, 17-45 (2025)

J.M. Mancl, W.G. Liang, N.L. Bayhi, H. Wei, W. Budell, J.H. Mendez, T.R. Sosnick, B. Carragher, C.S. Potter, W.J. Tang, "Characterization and modulation of human insulin degrading enzyme conformational dynamics to control enzyme activity" bioRxiv 2024.12.30.630732

K.L. Kroll, T.R. Sosnick, R.S. Rock, "Design and Use of AsLOV2-Based Optogenetic Tools for Actin Imaging. " Baumschlager, A. (eds) Optogenetics. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2840 (2025) 89-100.

N. Zhang, D. Sood, S.C. Guo, N. Chen, A. Antoszewski, T. Marianchuk, S. Dey, Y. Xiao, L. Hong, X. Peng, M.C. Baxa, C. Partch, L.P. Wang, T.R. Sosnick, A.R. Dinner, A. LiWang, "Temperature-dependent fold-switching mechanism of the circadian clock protein KaiB" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 121 (2024) e2412327121.

H. Glauninger, J.A.M. Bard, C.W. Hickernell, E.M. Airoldi, W. Li, R.H. Singer, S. Paul, J. Fei, T.R. Sosnick, E.W.J. Wallace, D.A. Drummond, "Transcriptome-wide mRNA condensation precedes stress granule formation and excludes stress-induced transcripts" bioRxiv 2024.04.15.589678

All Publications