Fiona Kearns

Fiona is a postdoctoral scholar and computational biophysicist at the University of California San Diego, jointly advised by Rommie E. Amaro and J. Andrew McCammon. Her work centers on uncovering interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and human host cell glycoproteins. She obtained her Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the University of South Florida advised by H. Lee Woodcock. Thus far, she has gathered a broad methodological repertoire including docking studies, molecular dynamics, quantum mechanical modeling, and enhanced sampling methods. She hopes to pursue an academic career in computational glycobiology, which she believes can unlock novel avenues for drug design.