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Dr. McCammon is also the Joseph E. Mayer Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and Professor of Pharmacology at the UCSD School of Medicine. He received his B.A. degree from Pomona College and his Ph.D. degree in chemical physics from Harvard University, where he worked with John Deutch on biological applications of statistical mechanics and hydrodynamics. As a research fellow, also at Harvard, he developed the computer simulation approach to protein dynamics, in collaboration with Martin Karplus. Prior to joining the faculty at UCSD, he was M.D. Anderson Chair of Chemistry at the University of Houston. Dr. McCammon has developed novel theoretical methods for accurately predicting and interpreting molecular recognition, the rates of diffusion-controlled reactions, and other properties of chemical systems. He carried out the first molecular dynamics simulations of proteins and RNA molecules and developed the Brownian dynamics simulation method for the study of diffusion. He has invented methods for extracting structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic properties from such simulations. The methods he has developed play a growing role in the design of new drugs, enzymes, and receptors. Dr. McCammon received the first George Herbert Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in Drug Design from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Computerworld Smithsonian Information Technology Leadership Award for Breakthrough Computational Science. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Biophysical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
RESEARCH ABSTRACT SUMMARY:
J. Andrew McCammon develops theoretical and computational methods for studying the function of biological molecules. By modeling the structure and dynamics of assemblies of these molecules, McCammon's group develops insights that help in the discovery of new pharmaceuticals.
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Photo: Paul Fetters
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