My lab studies the folding of proteins via database modeling and simulation. Proteins contain in their primary sequence all of the information necessary to fold spontaneously into their respective three-dimensional structures. How is that information encoded? Knowledge of the protein folding pathway will lead to improved prdictionof structure and function of unknown genes, and to better and more accurate approacheds to computational protein design, a field with enormous potential application and impact.
Other research interests involve sequence alignment, evolutionary models, and the modeling of evolving ecosystems.