My research area is molecular modeling of biological and organic compounds. Molecular modeling is a collection of methods that employs computers to calculate chemical and physical properties of molecular systems and to display graphical representations of those properties and systems. The computed properties of greatest interest in my research include:

• The conformation of biological and organic molecules, particularly peptides, proteins, enzyme substrates and inhibitors, and polyether macrocyclic receptors and their ligands.
• The energy of interaction between host molecules (for example, enzymes and macrocyclic compounds) and their guests.
• The relationship between the structure of these molecules and their biological and physical properties.

Techniques of computational chemistry and molecular modeling are popular approaches to solving chemical and biological problems in academic, industrial, pharmaceutical, and medicinal research, and computational chemistry will become increasingly more important in the future as software improves and as computers become more powerful.

Selected Molecular Modeling Research Projects

To see a slide show that explains molecular modeling and shows three sample research project, go to Molecular Modeling in Zimmerman’s Laboratory (online link)