Contact Information

Michael Hagan
Abelson 347
(781) 736-2845
hagan@brandeis.edu

Group webpage

Appointments

Associate Professor
Brandeis University
2013-Present

Assistant Professor
Brandeis University
2007- 2012

NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein Postdoctoral Fellow 
University of California, Berkeley      
2004-2006

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of California, Berkeley
2003-2004

Graduate Research Fellow
University of California, Berkeley
1998-2003

Michael Hagan

Michael HaganAssociate Professor of Physics
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2003

Michael Hagan's lab endeavors to understand how fundamental physical principles lead to the forces that control assembly and dynamic pattern formation in biological and biomimetic systems. Because assembling structures can be orders of magnitude larger than the individual components, his lab develops and applies computational and theoretical methods that bridge disparate length and time scales. Applications of these methods include understanding assembly mechanisms for viral capsids and other large protein complexes, and learning to direct the rational design of novel materials with biomimetic function.

CV and list of publications


Recent Ph.D. Students

Oren Elrad (2012) "Coarse-grained Simulations of Viral Assembly"  Present Position: Apple Computer

Yasheng Yang (2011) "Geometric and Dynamic Frustration in Self-organizing Systems"  Present Position: Data Specialist, Two Sigma Investments

Sample of Recent Publications

• Perlmutter, J.D., Qiao, C., Hagan, M.F. “Viral genome structures are optimal for capsid assembly”, eLife (in press) (2013) http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3556

• Redner, G., Hagan, M.F., Baskaran, A., “Structure and Dynamics of a Phase-Separating Active Colloidal Fluid” Phys. Rev. Lett., 110, 055701 (2013)

• Yu, N., Hagan, M.F., “Simulations of HIV capsid protein dimerization reveal the effect of chemistry and topography on the mechanism of hydrophobic protein association” Biophys. J. 103, 1363-1369 (2012) [Featured Article]

•Giomi L., Mahadevan L., Chakraborty, B., and Hagan, M.F. “Excitable Patterns in Active Nematics”,  Phys.Rev. Lett 106, 218101 (2011)

•[invited] Elrad O.M.; Hagan, M.F. “Encapsulation of a Polymer by an Icosahedral Virus”, Phys. Biol.,7, 045003 (2010), Part of a special focus issue on physical virology.

•Yang, Y.; Meyer, R.B.; Hagan, M.F. “Self-limited self-assembly of chiral filaments”,Phys. Rev. Lett., 104,258102 (2010)

•Elrad, O.M.; Hagan, M.F. “Mechanisms of size control and polymorphism in viral capsid assembly”,Nano Letters, 8,3850-3857 (2008)