Sharon M. Loverde, PhD, is a Professor in the Chemistry department at the College of Staten Island, a senior campus at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is also a faculty member of the Graduate Center of CUNY in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics. Dr. Loverde’s research focuses on molecular dynamics simulations of self-assembly in soft and biological systems. Dr. Loverde was an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow who worked with Dennis E. Discher (UPenn) and Michael L. Klein (Temple). She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, working with Monica Olvera de la Cruz. As a faculty at CUNY, she has received a Doctoral New Investigator Award from the Petroleum Research Foundation, NIH R15 Awards from NIH NIBIB and NIGMS, and multiple grants from the NSF, including a CAREER Award from NSF DMR CMMT. She is also a co-PI on an NSF NRT NanoBioNYC.
Dr. Loverde has mentored numerous undergraduate students from the Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, and Computer Science programs at CUNY College of Staten Island and multiple graduate students from the CUNY Graduate Center. Students mentored by the Loverde laboratory have obtained computational chemistry internships and positions in pharmaceutical companies (Takeda), scientific software development companies (OpenEye, Schrodinger) and private research companies (Flatiron Institute, DESRES).
Degrees
PhD Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
BS Physics University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
In Progress
"Chiral Patterning Drives Peptide Coacervate Formation: Coarse-Grained Insights from the SIRAH Force Field," Tania Rajpersaud, Tahoora Ateeq, Lorraine Leon, Sergio Pantano, Sharon M. Loverde, in prep.
"DNA Sequence and Histone Variant H2A.Z Jointly Govern Nucleosome Unwrapping Pathways," Abhik Ghosh Moulick, Rutika Patel, Tania Rajpersaud, Evgenia N. Nikolova, Sharon M. Loverde, in prep. Bioarxiv Link.
Peer-Reviewed
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"H2A.Z facilitates Sox2-nucleosome interaction by promoting DNA and histone H3 tail mobility, "Moos, Helen; Patel, Rutika; Flaherty, Sophie; Loverde, Sharon; Nikolova, Evgenia, Nucleic Acids Research, 2026. Link.
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"Mapping Allosteric Communication in the Nucleosome with Conditional Activity," Augustine Onyema, Chukwuebuka Dikeocha*, Rutika Patel, Jonathan Moussa, Sharon M. Loverde, JCIM, 2026. Link. *undergraduate student
CONDACT (CONDitional ACTivity) code:
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/conditional_activity
Trajectories: https://zenodo.org/records/17193099
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"Structural and Thermodynamic Impact of Oncogenic Mutations on the Nucleosome Core Particle," Augustine Onyema*, Chris DiForte*, Rutika Patel, Sebastien Poget, and Sharon M. Loverde, Biophysical Journal, 2025. Link.
Trajectories: https://zenodo.org/records/15725116
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"Unveiling the Conformational Dynamics of the Histone Tails Using Markov State Modeling," Rutika Patel and Sharon M. Loverde, JCTC, 2025. Link.
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"The need to implement FAIR principles in biomolecular simulations," Amaro et al. Nature Methods, 22, 641-645, 2025. Link.
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"Unveiling Nucleosome Dynamics: A Comparative Study Using All-Atom and Coarse-Grained Simulations Enhanced by Principal Component Analysis," Abhik Ghosh Moulick, Rutika Patel, Augustine Onyema, and Sharon M. Loverde, JCP, 162, 6, 2025. Link.
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/GhoshMoulick_2024-
Trajectories: https://zenodo.org/records/14033991
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"Conformational dynamics of the nucleosomal histone H2B tails revealed by molecular dynamics simulations," Rutika Patel, Augustine Onyema, Phu Tang, and Loverde, S. M., JCIM, 2024. Link.
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/H2B_N_terminal_tails
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"Sequence Dependence in Nucleosome Dynamics," Khatua, Prabir, Tang, Phu, Ghoshmoulick, Abhik, Patel, Rutika, Manandhar, Anjela, and Loverde, S.M., JPCB, 2024. Link.
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/NUCLEOSOME_SEQUENCE_DEPENDENCE and https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/PCA
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"Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Polylectrolyte Complexes," Tania Rajpersaud, Sara Tabendeh, Lorraine Leon, and Loverde, S. M., Biomacromolecules, 2024. Link.
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/Rajpersaud_Biomacromolecules_2023
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"Exploration of the Nucleation Pathway for Supramolecular Fibers," Tang, Phu, Khatua, Prabir, Carnevale, Enzo, Loverde, S.M., JCIM, 2023. Link.
Github: https://github.com/CUNY-CSI-Loverde-Laboratory/Tang_JCIM_2023
