Brian Matthews (biochemist)

Brian W. Matthews
Born	1938 (age 85–86) Mount Barker, South Australia
Institutions	University of Cambridge University of Oregon Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Alma mater	University of Adelaide
Academic advisors	David M. Blow
Known for	Matthews correlation coefficient
Website molbio.uoregon.edu/matthews/

File:PDB 2lzm EBI.jpg

T4 lysozyme ribbon schematic (from PDB 1LZM)

Brian W. Matthews is a biochemist and biophysicist educated at the University of Adelaide, contributor to x-ray crystallographic methodology at the University of Cambridge, and since 1970 at the University of Oregon as Professor of Physics and HHMI investigator in the Institute of Molecular Biology.

He created hundreds of mutants of T4 lysozyme (making it the commonest structure in the PDB), determined their structure by x-ray crystallography and measured their melting temperatures. Starting from questions about the basis of "temperature-sensitive" mutations, his work has explicated much about the general energetic and structural effects of mutations in proteins. He also solved early structures of the thermophilic bacterial enzyme thermolysin, the helix-turn-helix DNA-binding transcription factor lambda Cro repressor, and the light-antenna bacteriochlorophyll protein.

Beyond his contributions to biochemistry, Matthews is also known in the machine learning community for the Matthews correlation coefficient, which he introduced in a paper in 1975. The coefficient is used as a measure of the quality of binary (two-class) classifications.

Matthews has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1986. He is the editor of the scientific journal Protein Science.

External links

• Brian Matthews at The Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon
• HHMI Alumni Scientists
• Molecule of the Month: Lysozyme