Cristiano Dias
Professor, Physics
973-596-3557
462 Tiernan Hall (TIER)
Education
Ph.D. ; McGill University, Canada ; ; 2007

M.S. ; Universite de Montreal, Canada ; ; 2001

B.S. ; Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil ; ; 1998

Website
https://diascristiano.wixsite.com/cris
2025 Fall Courses
PHYS 700B - MASTER'S PROJECT

PHYS 726 - INDEPENDENT STUDY II

PHYS 790A - DOCT DISSERTATION & RES

PHYS 111 - PHYSICS I

MTSE 792B - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

PHYS 490 - INDEPENDENT STUDY

PHYS 701B - MASTER'S THESIS

PHYS 491 - INDEPENDENT STUDY II

PHYS 792 - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

PHYS 701C - MASTER'S THESIS

PHYS 725 - INDEPENDENT STUDY I

Teaching Interests
1) Freshman Physics Courses (e.g., Phys. 111)
2) Biophysics courses (e.g., BioPhysics 350).
3) Graduate level "Statistical Mechanics".
Past Courses
PHYS 111: PHYSICS I

PHYS 204: BIOPHYSICS OF LIFE

PHYS 350: BIOPHYSICS

PHYS 451: BIOPHYSICS II

Research Interests
In our lab, we study non-equilibrium phenomena using atomistic and statistical mechanics models to understand biological systems. Our recent focus has been in protein self-assembly in solution and on the surface of lipid membranes. A better understanding of self-assembly and how it leads to the formation of supramolecular structures is allowing us to design better biomaterials. Our study on membrane damage is improving our understanding of amyloid toxicity in diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. These studies are being carried out in collaboration with experimentalist and theoreticians. These interdisciplinary topics lie at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology, and material science.
Journal Article
Cristiano Luis Dias. 2024. "Growth kinetics of amyloid-like fibrils: An integrated atomistic simulation and continuum theory approach." PNAS Nexus , vol. 3 , pp. 1-12.

Cristiano Luis Dias. 2024. "Peptide Self-Assembly into Amyloid Fibrils: Unbiased All-Atom Simulations." J. Phys. Chem. B .

Cristiano Luis Dias. 2023. "Nucleation and Growth of Amyloid Fibrils." J. Phys. Chem. B , vol. 127 , pp. 9759-9770.

Cristiano Luis Dias. 2023. "Peptide−Membrane Binding: Effects of the Amino Acid Sequence." J. Phys. Chem. B , vol. 127 , pp. 912-920.

Yanxing Yang, Hannah Distaffen, Sharareh Jalali, Andrew J. Nieuwkoop, Bradley Nilsson, Cristiano Luis Dias. 2022. "Atomic Insights into Amyloid-Induced Membrane Damage." ACS Chem. Neurosci. , vol. 13 , pp. 2766–2777.

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