Cory Ayres

Cory "AK" Ayres is from the state of Georgia. He earned his Sc.B. in Chemistry from Georgia Southern University in 2011 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 2017. He was appointed a Research Assistant Professor in 2022. Cory is interested in utilizing computational techniques, primarily molecular dynamics simulations, to investigate the role of dynamics in T cell receptor recognition of peptide/MHC complexes. In additon to studying the role of molecular motion in specificity and immunogenicity, he is investigating the mechanisms of catch bond formation and role of allosteric communication in T cell activation. He enjoys developing esoteric protocols to analyze trajectory and experimental data, and he has a penchant for turning everything into colorful 2D matrices. In his free time, Cory enjoys eating spicy food and learning jiu-jitsu.