Myongin Oh hired by Memorial University

Myongin was born in Seoul, Korea, and moved to Oakville, Ontario, at the age of 18. His passion for chemistry and mathematics led him to pursue a Ph.D. in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry in the research group of Professor Styliani Consta at the University of Western Ontario. His doctoral research focused on hydration and electrostatics, specifically the computational and analytical modeling of macromolecule-solvent interactions in nanodroplets.

To broaden his expertise in biophysical and biomedical applications, he joined Dr. Donald F. Weaver's lab at the Krembil Research Institute and the University of Toronto for postdoctoral research. There, he explored critical roles of water in the brain and contributed to drug design efforts targeting inflammation in COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s disease. His pursuit of deeper biophysical insights led him to Dr. Jessica M. J. Swanson's lab at the University of Utah, where he developed data-driven methods for enhanced sampling of peptide folding, drug membrane permeation, and protein-lipid droplet interactions. Transitioning into a principal investigator role at Koniag Government Services for the FDA, he applied machine learning to drug discovery, developing graph neural networks for predicting mu-opioid drug properties. As a postdoctoral associate at Weill Cornell Medicine, he advanced computational methods for automated collective variable discovery, focusing on transmembrane protein conformational transitions and protein-ligand interactions. He also collaborated with a pharmaceutical company on drug design projects targeting pulmonary fibrosis.

In January 2025, he began his role as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His research program integrates machine learning and biomolecular simulations to advance enhanced sampling techniques and drug discovery, addressing critical public health challenges.