Professor Garrett M. Morris

Garrett’s research interests are in methods development in molecular recognition and computer-aided drug discovery, particularly the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence. His work spans from high throughput docking, ligand-based virtual screening, network pharmacology, cheminformatics, bioinformatics, and more recently protein engineering. He began as an Oxford undergraduate Chemist, completing his Part II and DPhil with Prof. W. Graham Richards. He moved to The Scripps Research Institute, California, USA, to work on protein-ligand docking and AutoDock, and in 2000 launched the first biomedical volunteer computing project, FightAIDSatHome, which helped spawn other biomedical projects with IBM’s World Community Grid, most recently Open Pandemics - COVID-19. In 2008, he moved to work at the University of Oxford's spinout, InhibOx, now Oxford Drug Design, doing real-world drug discovery, where he spearheaded the use of cloud computing and novel virtual screening methods; and then to Crysalin, another Oxford spinout, to develop novel protein engineering techniques for protein crystallization. He is now an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Statistics, and works closely with Prof. Deane. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Molecular Recognition; served for six years as Secretary of the Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society; is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Specialty Chief Editor for Drug Discovery in Bioinformatics for Frontiers in Bioinformatics.

OpenPandemics - COVID-19: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/opn1/overview.do

FightAIDSatHome: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewProject.do?projectShortName=...