Biophysical Society Bulletin | February 2018

Profile in Biophysics

Patrick McCarter Area of Research Quantitative Systems Pharmacology

Institution University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

At-a-Glance

Patrick McCarter is a postdoctoral fellow in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, working in quantitative systems pharmacology, which seeks to under- stand the impact of drugs at all levels of physiology. His career thus far has been marked by his dedication to research focused on improving human health, and his openness to honest self-as- sessment and improvement.

Patrick McCarter

“My first real experience in science came after my freshman year in college,” shares Patrick McCarter , postdoctoral fellow in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). “I worked as a summer student researcher in nuclear and particle physics at The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. I enjoyed the collegial environment of the national lab and watching the different units working together to tackle a huge project.” He went on to receive his bachelor of science degree in physics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and then continued there as he earned a master’s of science in compu- tational science and engineering. This was a challenging journey, but he approached it with rig- or. “I had no real idea of what biophysics was when I started college, but the idea of combining biology and physics to solve challenging problems in human health was really appealing to me, so I set out on a journey to become a biophysicist. My challenge was that because my physics department did not have a biophysicist, there was no roadmap for me to follow,” he says. To achieve his goal, McCarter pictured who he thought an “ideal” biophysicist would be, and then cre- ated a plan to become as much like them as possible. “This required an uncomfortable amount of introspection, where I determined that I just was not good enough at math to reach my goal. So I decided to first intently focus on learning math through physics, which came more naturally to me, and then once comfortable, apply that knowledge to biological prob- lems,” he shares. “It was difficult to stick with physics while struggling with math at first, but I was encouraged by my family and physics department, and also inspired by Richard Feynman’s idea, which paraphrased says that, ‘My attitude towards mathematics could be slightly disrespectful, in that I only needed to borrow enough math to do the physics…’ After a couple years of undergraduate physics, I became much bet- ter at math. By the time I finished the first year of my mas- ters, I was confident that I could use my physics background to investigate the biological problems that interested me.”

McCarter at a BPS Summer Program reunion with his cohorts.

As he was completing his master’s degree, he was still not quite sure that he wanted to commit to a PhD program. “I asked my thesis advisor if I could take time ‘mostly-off’ from my thesis research to attend the Biophysical Society’s 2010 Summer Program in Biophysics,” he says. “It turned out to be a really great decision for me. I trained in the lab of Dr. Max Berkowitz using computational biophysics to investigate peptide induced membrane permeabilization. The experience solidified my desire to pursue a PhD in biophysics, and be- cause I was working directly with PhD students and postdocs, I returned to my master’s program a better scientist.” Additionally, the connections he made during the summer program have been crucial in the years following his partic- ipation. “My summer course cohort is always available for support,” he says, “and over the years I’ve developed a strong relationship with the greater Biophysical Society. I feel like I belong here.”

February 2018

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