Tarakanova, Anna

Anna Tarakanova

Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Manufacturing Engineering

Email anna.tarakanova@uconn.edu
Phone (860) 486-5463
Mailing Address School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Rd. U-3139, Storrs, CT 06269
Campus Storrs
Link Affiliation Website
Google Scholar Link

Brief Bio

Anna Tarakanova joined the University of Connecticut in 2018 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on advancing molecular and multiscale modeling methods to study the structure, function and mechanics of biological and bioinspired materials driving the development of new functional materials for medical and engineering applications. Additionally, she investigates new characterization approaches for highly disordered molecules, their associated functions and implications for health and disease. Her work aims to expose disease mechanisms from a fundamental scale into structural and functional hierarchies associated with complex biological systems. She received her B.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University (2011), and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2015 and 2017, respectively), followed by a one-year appointment as a postdoctoral scholar also at MIT.

  • dvancing molecular,
  • multiscale and data-driven modeling methods to study the structure,
  • function and mechanics of complex nanoscale and biological materials
    • 15. DL Barreiro, J Yeo, A Tarakanova, FJ Martin-Martinez, MJ Buehler. Multiscale Modeling of Silk and Silk-Based Biomaterials — A Review. Macromolecular Bioscience, 2018, 1800253
  • 14. A Tarakanova, GC Yeo, C Baldock, AS Weiss, MJ Buehler. Tropoelastin is a flexible molecule that retains its canonical shape. Macromolecular Bioscience, 2018, 1800250
  • 13. A Tarakanova, GC Yeo, C Baldock, AS Weiss, MJ Buehler. Molecular model of human tropoelastin and implications of associated mutations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, 115 (28), 7338-7343
  • 12. J Yeo, GS Jung, A Tarakanova, FJ Martín-Martínez, Z Qin, Y Cheng, YW Zhang, MJ Buehler. Multiscale modeling of keratin, collagen, elastin and related human diseases: Perspectives from atomistic to coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Extreme Mechanics Letters, 2018, 20, 112-124
  • 11. J Yeo, W Huang, A Tarakanova, YW Zhang, DL Kaplan, MJ Buehler. Unraveling the molecular mechanisms of thermo-responsive properties of silk-elastin-like proteins by integrating multiscale modeling and experiment. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 2018, 6 (22), 3727-3734
  • 10. A Tarakanova, W Huang, AS Weiss, DL Kaplan, MJ Buehler. Computational smart polymer design based on elastin protein mutability. Biomaterials, 2017, 127, 49-60
  • 9. A Tarakanova, W Huang, Z Qin, DL Kaplan, MJ Buehler. Modeling and Experiment Reveal Structure and Nanomechanics across the Inverse Temperature Transition in B. mori Silk-Elastin-like Protein Polymers. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2017, 3 (11), 2889-2899
  • 8. W Huang, D Ebrahimi, N Dinjaski, A Tarakanova, Markus J Buehler, JY Wong, DL Kaplan. Synergistic Integration of Experimental and Simulation Approaches for the de Novo Design of Silk-Based Materials. Accounts of Chemical Research, 2017, 50 (4), 866-876
  • 7. W Huang, A Tarakanova, N Dinjaski, Q Wang, X Xia, Y Chen, JY Wong, MJ Buehler, DL Kaplan. Design of Multistimuli Responsive Hydrogels Using Integrated Modeling and Genetically Engineered Silk–Elastin‐Like Proteins. Advanced Functional Materials, 2016, 26 (23), 4113-4123
  • 6. GC Yeo, A Tarakanova, C Baldock, SG Wise, MJ Buehler, AS Weiss. Subtle balance of tropoelastin molecular shape and flexibility regulates dynamics and hierarchical assembly. Science Advances, 2016, 2 (2), e1501145
  • 5. A Tarakanova, SW Chang, MJ Buehler. Computational Materials Science of Bionanomaterials: Structure, Mechanical Properties and Applications of Elastin and Collagen Proteins. Handbook of Nanomaterials Properties, 2014, 941-962
  • 4. A Tarakanova, MJ Buehler. Molecular modeling of protein materials: case study of elastin. Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2013, 21 (6), 063001
  • 3. A Tarakanova, MJ Buehler. The role of capture spiral silk properties in the diversification of orb webs. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 2012, 9 (77), 3240-3248
  • 2. A Tarakanova, MJ Buehler. A materiomics approach to spider silk: protein molecules to webs. JOM, 2012, 64 (2), 214-225
  • 1. SW Cranford, A Tarakanova, NM Pugno, MJ Buehler. Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs. Nature, 2012, 482 (7383), 72