Dr. David A. McClellan

David A. McClellan, Ph.D. is Senior Research Scientist, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
 
David is a broadly trained biologist with research interests in molecular adaptation and evolutionary bioinformatics. His background includes integration of biochemistry, statistics, computer science, biotechnology, bioinformatics, molecular systematics, genetics, and ecology.
 
Bioinformatics is an emerging area of biological research that combines molecular biology and mathematical modeling of biological phenomena with computer software design and implementation. David is developing biological/computational approaches specifically to the study of molecular adaptation, the field of research concerned with molecular mechanisms involved with drug and vaccine resistance in viruses and bacteria, as well as the effect of global and local climate change on humans and other organisms.
 
He is actively developing analytical methodology and computer software, and working in collaboration with empirical researchers around the world to characterize adaptation in a variety of organisms, including worms, copepods, wasps, agricultural crops, lizards, whales, and humans.
 
David authored The Codon-Degeneracy Model of Molecular Evolution, and coauthored TreeSAAP: Selection on Amino Acid Properties using phylogenetic trees, Estimating the Influence of Selection on the Variable Amino Acid Sites of the Cytochrome Beta Protein Functional Domains, Comparing Phylogenetic Codivergence between Polyomaviruses and Their Hosts, Characterization of a mitochondrially targeted single-stranded DNA-binding protein in Arabidopsis thaliana, Physicochemical Evolution and Molecular Adaptation of the Cetacean and Artiodactyl Cytochrome Beta Proteins, and Genetic codes as evolutionary filters: subtle differences in the structure of genetic codes result in significant differences in patterns of nucleotide substitution.
 
David earned his B.S. in Zoology from Brigham Young University in 1992, his M.S. in Zoology from Brigham Young University in 1994, and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Louisiana State University in 1999.