chemistry

Margaret Oakley Dayhoff

Margaret Oakley Dayhoff is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Margaret Oakley Dayhoff rather than just read about it. In short: Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff (March 11, 1925 – February 5, 1983) was an American biophysicist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry.

Key takeaways

Margaret Oakley Dayhoff belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reference excerpt

Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff (March 11, 1925 – February 5, 1983) was an American biophysicist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry. She dedicated her career to applying the evolving computational technologies to support advances in biology and medicine, most notably the creation of protein and nucleic acid databases and tools to interrogate the databases. She originated one of the first substitution matrices, point accepted mutations (PAM). The one-letter code used for amino acids was developed by her, reflecting an attempt to reduce the size of the data files used to describe amino acid sequences in an era of punch-card computing. Her PhD degree was from Columbia University in the department of chemistry, where she devised computational methods to calculate molecular resonance energies of several organic compounds. She did postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) and the University of Maryland, and joined the newly established National Biomedical Research Foundation in 1959. She was the first woman to hold office in the Biophysical Society and the first person to serve as both secretary and eventually president.

Early life

Dayhoff was born an only child in Philadelphia, but moved to New York City when she was ten. Her academic promise was evident from the outset – she was valedictorian (class of 1942) at Bayside High School, Bayside, New York, and from there received a scholarship to Washington Square College of New York University, graduating magna cum laude in mathematics in 1945 and getting elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Research Dayhoff began a PhD in quantum chemistry under George Kimball in the Columbia University Department of Chemistry. In her graduate thesis, Dayhoff pioneered the use of computer capabilities – i.e. mass-data processing – to theoretical chemistry; specifically, she devised a method of applying punched-card business machines to calculate the resonance energies of several polycyclic organic molecules. Her management of her research data was so impressive that she was awarded a Watson Computing Laboratory Fellowship. As part of this award, she received access to "cutting-edge IBM electronic data processing equipment" at the lab.

After completing her PhD, Dayhoff studied electrochemistry under Duncan A. MacInnes at the Rockefeller Institute from 1948 to 1951. In 1952, she moved to Maryland with her family and later received research fellowships from the University of Maryland (1957–1959), working on a model of chemical bonding with Ellis Lippincott. At Maryland, she gained her first exposure to a new high-speed computer, the IBM model 7094. After this ended, she joined the National Biomedical Research Foundation in 1960 as associate director (a position she held for 21 years). At the NBRF, she began to work with Robert Ledley, a dentist who had obtained a degree in physics and become interested in the possibilities of applying computational resources to biomedical problems. He had authored one of the earliest studies of biomedical computation, "Report on the Use of Computer in Biology and Medicine." With their combined expertise, they published a paper in 1962 entitled "COMPROTEIN: A computer program to aid primary protein structure determination" that described a "completed computer program for the IBM 7090" that aimed to convert peptide digests to protein chain data. They actually began this work in 1958, but were not able to start programming until late 1960.

In the early 1960s, Dayhoff also collaborated with Ellis Lippincott and Carl Sagan to develop thermodynamic models of cosmo-chemical systems, including prebiological planetary atmospheres. She developed a computer program that could calculate equilibrium concentrations of the gases in a planetary atmosphere, enabling the study of the atmospheres of Venus, Jupiter, and Mars, in addition to the present day atmosphere and the primordial terrestrial atmosphere. Using this program, she considered whether the primordial atmosphere had the conditions necessary to generate life. Although she found that numerous small biologically important compounds can appear with no special nonequilibrium mechanism to explain their presence, there were compounds necessary to life that were scarce in the equilibrium model (such as ribose, adenine, and cytosine). Dayhoff also taught physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center for 13 years, served as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected councillor of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life in 1980 after 8 years of membership. Dayhoff also served on the editorial boards of three journals: DNA, Journal of Molecular Evolution and Computers in Biology and Medicine.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Logo of the Biophysical Society

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Margaret Oakley Dayhoff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Margaret Oakley Dayhoff claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Margaret Oakley Dayhoff before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Margaret Oakley Dayhoff ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Margaret Oakley Dayhoff

In research: Margaret Oakley Dayhoff appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Margaret Oakley Dayhoff in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Margaret Oakley Dayhoff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 1983 deaths, 20th-century American biochemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Margaret Oakley Dayhoff outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Margaret Oakley Dayhoff in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Margaret Oakley Dayhoff means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Margaret Oakley Dayhoff in simple terms?

Why does Margaret Oakley Dayhoff matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Margaret Oakley Dayhoff?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Margaret Oakley Dayhoff.