Life Science and Materials Science Research Areas
Michael Deem is an American researcher. He works in the life science and materials science areas. Deem has published over 200 papers, given over 300 invited talks, invented 16 U.S. patents, and taught over 10000 students.
Michael W Deem

Michael W. Deem develops theoretical methods of statistical mechanics to study the collective properties of biological systems. He studies both nature and synthetic, engineered biology. He developed methods to quantify vaccine effectiveness and antigenic distance for influenza, methods to sculpt the immune system to mitigate immunodominance in dengue fever, a physical theory of the competition that allows HIV to escape from the immune system, the first exact solution of a mathematical model of evolution that accounts for cross-species genetic exchange, a hierarchical approach to protein molecular evolution, a `thermodynamic' formulation of evolution, and a theory for how biological modularity spontaneously arises in an evolving system. He developed structured random energy models to study the adaptive immune response to viruses and vaccines. He used field theories to analyze evolution. He showed the connection between horizontal gene transfer and modularity. In the materials field, he developed a number of widely-used Monte Carlo methods in structure, nucleation, and function of zeolites. He remains interested in these areas.