Welcome to the homepage of Oded Farago

Senior Lecturer at:

Biomedical Engineering Department
Ben Gurion University, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel
Phone: +972-8-6479830; Fax: +972-8-6479628
email:ofarago@bgu.ac.il





Research:

My research combines analytical and computational methods of statistical mechanics to understand the physical principles behind the functioning of complex biological and biomedical systems. I am especially interested in developing coarse-grained (mesoscopic) molecular models which can be used to study the long-time evolution and thermodynamic properties of large molecular assemblies consisting of lipids and biopolymers (e.g., DNA, poly-peptides). Such models may help us bridge the gap between the molecular and macroscopic regimes and lead to better insight on how the molecular building blocks and the interactions between them determine the structure and other physical properties of the supramolecular assemblies that they form.

A more detailed description of my research ...

Click Here for a PDF file of my complete CV

Brief Bio

  • 1996-2001 Tel Aviv University, Israel, Ph.D. in Physics,
    Thesis: Elasticity of Entropy-Dominated Systems. Supervisor: Prof. Yacov Kantor
    2001 Ph.D. in Physics with distinction. Gzipped PS file of Ph.D. thesis

  • 1993-1996 Tel Aviv University, Israel, Masters degree in Physics,
    Thesis: Directed Chaotic Motion. Supervisor: Prof. Yacov Kantor
    1997 M.Sc. in Physics Summa Cum Laude. Gzipped PS file of Masters thesis

  • 1988-1991 Tel Aviv University, Israel Undergraduate studies in Physics and Mathematics.
    1992 B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics Magna Cum Laude.

    Publications (click on title for the PDF file)

    1. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Directed chaotic motion in a periodic potential
      Physica A 249, 151 (1998)

    2. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Pseudo-boundaries in discontinuous 2-dimensional maps
      J. Phys. A 31, 445 (1998)

    3. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Fluctuation formalism for elastic constants in hard-spheres-and-tethers systems
      Phys. Rev. E 61, 2478 (2000)

    4. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Entropic elasticity of two-dimensional self-avoiding percolation systems
      Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2533 (2000)

    5. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Elasticity of Gaussian and nearly Gaussian phantom networks
      Phys. Rev. E 62, 6094 (2000)

    6. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      The elastic behavior of entropic ``fisherman's net''
      Eur. Phys. J. E 3, 253 (2000)

    7. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Entropic elasticity of phantom percolation networks
      Europhys. Lett. 52, 413 (2000)

    8. O. Farago and Y. Kantor
      Entropic elasticity at the sol-gel transition
      Europhys. Lett. 57, 458 (2002)

    9. O. Farago and P. Pincus
      Solute effects on the helix-coil transition
      Eur. Phys. J. E 7, 393 (2002)

    10. O. Farago, Y. Kantor, and M. Kardar
      Pulling knotted polymers
      Europhys. Lett. 60, 53 (2002)

    11. O. Farago
      ``Water-free'' computer model for fluid bilayer membranes
      J. Chem. Phys. 119, 596 (2003)

    12. O. Farago and P. Pincus
      The effect of thermal fluctuations on Schulman area elasticity
      Eur. Phys. J. E 11, 399 (2003)

    13. O. Farago and P. Pincus
      Statistical mechanics of bilayer membrane with a fixed projected area
      J. Chem. Phys. 120, 2934 (2004)

    14. O. Farago and C. D. Santangelo
      Pore formation in fluctuating membranes
      J. Chem. Phys. 122, 044901 (2005).

    15. O. Farago, N. Gronbech-Jensen, and P. Pincus
      Meso-scale computer modeling of lipid-DNA complexes for gene therapy
      Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 018102 (2006).

    16. O. Farago and N. Gronbech-Jensen
      Computational and analytical modeling of cationic lipid-DNA complexes
      Biophys. J. 92, 3228 (2007).

    17. C. D. Santangelo and O. Farago
      Membrane fluctuations around inclusions
      J. Computer-Aided Mater. Des. 14, 103 (2007).

    18. O. Farago
      Mode excitation Monte Carlo simulations of mesoscopically large membranes
      J. Chem Phys. 128, 184105 (2008).

    19. O. Farago, K. Ewert, A. Ahmad, H. M. Evans, N. Gronbech-Jensen, and C. R. Safinya
      Transitions between distinct compaction regimes in complexes of multivalent cationic lipids and DNA
      Biophys. J. 95, 836 (2008).

    20. O. Farago
      Membrane fluctuations near a plane rigid surface
      Phys. Rev. E 78, 051919 (2008).

    21. O. Farago and N. Gronbech-Jensen
      Simulation of self-assembly of cationic lipids and DNA into structured complexes
      J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 2875 (2009).

    22. B. Gilboa, D. Gillo, O. Farago and A. Bernheim-Groswasser
      Bidirectional cooperative motion of myosin-II motors on actin tracks with randomly alternating polarities
      Soft Matter 5, 2223 (2009).

    23. D. Gillo, B. Gur, A. Bernheim-Groswasser and O. Farago
      Cooperative molecular motors moving back and forth
      Phys. Rev. E 80, 021929 (2009).