- Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York
- Affiliate Faculty, Nanoscience Initiative
Raymond Tu, Ph.D.
Affiliation
City College of New York (Profile)
Research Interests
The Tu group are interested in mimicking biomolecular self-assembly using a set of rationally designed peptide-based building blocks. These peptides combine elements that direct assembly with elements responsible for natural-binding interactions into a hybrid molecule. The design and application of such ‘bottom-up’ assemblies requires precision synthesis, predictive folding algorithms, and accurate characterization of self-assembly.
Job History
- 2013 – Current: Associate Professor, City College of New York
- 2006 – 2013: Assistant Professor, City College of New York
- 2001 – 2003: Postdoctoral Research Associate, GaTech
- 1998 – 2001: Ph.D., UC, Santa Barbara
- 1992 – 1998: B.S., Unversity of Florida
Publications
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Jonathan W. Sun, Chengyu Sun, Seungri Kim, Andrew L. Wang, Isabella Huang, Nada Haq-Siddiqi, Zara Hedaya, Raymond S. Tu, Xi Chen*, Jin Kim Montclare*. Single-Residue Mutation Switch Reconfigures the Hierarchical Structure and Assembly of Amphiphilic Protein Block Copolymers for Hydration Layer-Dominated Water-Responsive Actuation. Biochemistry, 65, 2165-2179 (2026). |
Yuchen Zhang, Chengyu Sun, Erica Wong, Maheen K. Khan, Darjan Podbevšek, Walker MacSwain, Raymond S. Tu*, Xi Chen*. Interfacial Water Confinement Couples Hygroactuation and Mechanical Robustness in Free-Standing Biocomposites. Advanced Functional Materials, e77708 (2026). |
Maheen K. Khan, Vignesh Athiyarath, Darjan Podbevšek, Yeojin Jung, Seungri Kim, Yuchen Zhang, Gonca Kilavuz-Ecker, Raymond S. Tu, and Xi Chen*. Modulating water-responsive actuation energy of regenerated silk fibroin via tyrosine modification. Soft Matter 21, 4150-4155 (2025). |
Dhwanit R. Dave, Salma Kassem, Maeva Coste, Lele Xu, Mona Tayarani-Najjaran, Darjan Podbevšek, Paola Colon-De Leon, Sheng Zhang, Luis Ortuno Macias, Deborah Sementa, María Pérez-Ferreiro, Nooshin Sadat Ayati, Muniyat A. Choudhury, Kelly Veerasammy, Selma Doganata, Tiffany Zhong, Cory Weng, Jorge Morales, Denize C. Favaro, Mateusz Marianski, So Yeon Ahn, Allie C. Obermeyer, Tong Wang, Tai-De Li, Xi Chen, Raymond Tu, Ye He, and Rein V. Ulijn*. Adaptive peptide dispersions enable drying-induced biomolecule encapsulation. Nature Materials 24, 1465–1475 (2025). |
Jacob Kronenberg, Yeojin Jung, Jason Chen, Maria Jinu Kulapurathazhe, Dustin Britton, Seungri Kim, Xi Chen*, Raymond S. Tu*, and Jin Kim Montclare*. Structure-Dependent Water Responsiveness of Protein Block Copolymers. ACS Applied Bio Materials 7, 3714–3720 (2024). |
Darjan Podbevšek, Yeojin Jung, Maheen K. Khan, Honghui Yu, Raymond S. Tu* and Xi Chen*. The role of water mobility on water-responsive actuation of silk. Nature Communications 15, 8287 (2024). |
Y. Jung, S.S. Golru, T.-D. Li, E.J. Biddinger, R.S. Tu, and X. Chen, Tuning water-responsiveness with Bombyx mori silk-silica nanoparticle composites, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 7817-7821. |
