John Chodera

John Chodera, PhD, is a Professor in the Computational & Systems Biology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). He leads the Chodera Lab, which focuses on computational and experimental methods to model small molecule interactions with biomolecules and cellular pathways. His work integrates statistical mechanics and physical models to develop novel therapeutics and understand ligand recognition mechanisms.

Education: PhD in 2006 from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and BS in 1999 from California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Research Interests: Computational drug design, protein engineering, high-throughput screening, and applications in cancer and virology. His lab develops machine learning potentials (e.g., SPICE dataset), force fields (Open Force Field Initiative), and tools like OpenMM for molecular simulations. Recent work includes predicting kinase inhibitor resistance and designing antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2.

Notable Achievements: Louis V. Gerstner Young Investigator Award (2013), QB3-Berkeley Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008), and leadership in open science initiatives like the COVID Moonshot collaboration.

Lab Members: Includes graduate students (e.g., Benjamin Kaminow, Jessica White) and postdoctoral researchers (Sukrit Singh). The lab collaborates with institutions like Weill Cornell and industry partners (e.g., Ventus Therapeutics).

Funding & Grants: Supported by NIH grants (e.g., R01 GM121505), and industry partnerships. Research focuses on therapeutic development, force field innovation, and AI-driven drug discovery.