David A. McClellan
David A. McClellan (born 8 October, 1966 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is currently a Senior Research Scientist for the Bigelow Laboratory for Oceanic Studies. Formerly, he was an Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology at Brigham Young University (BYU). His interests include molecular adaptation and evolutionary bioinformatics. Some of his research has also focused specifically on the theoretical aspects of molecular evolution.
In 1988 McClellan married Lynda Mickelsen. They are the parents of four children.
McClellan received his BS in Zoology from BYU in 1992. His MS, also from BYU, was awarded in 1994. His thesis was on the genetic markers of Peromyscine rodents. He received a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1999. His dissertation presented two novel mathematical models for detecting molecular selection, one at the gene level and one at the protein level. He did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and Tokyo Institute of Technology through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
McClellan played a fundamental role in the creation of the MM01 model, which is the central algorithm of the TreeSAAP software for detecting molecular selection in protein-coding genes using the information inherent to physicochemical properties of amino acids.
McClellan has published a research article written with David F. Whiting and others on the significant effects on patterns of nucleotide substitution that very small changes in the genetic code may have.
McClellan has co-authored multiple articles dealing with physicochemical effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs.
McClellan's article "Detecting Lehi's Genetic Signature: Possible, Probable or Not" has been widely cited in discussions over how DNA evidence relates to the Book of Mormon.
Sources
- bio of McClellan
- "portal" listing of works co-authored by McClellan
- Daniel C. Peterson, ed., The Book of Mormon and DNA Research, (Provo, Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2008) p. vii.
- BYU bio page for McClellan