Emphasis in Computational and Systems Biology

Computational methods play an ever-increasing role in experimental design and data analysis required to solve biomedical problems.  Any student in the Division of Basic Science (DBS) with a suitable background and interest in using mathematical and computational techniques to understand biological and biochemical processes is eligible to add aComputational and Systems Biology Emphasis to their Ph.D. degree.  The emphasis is designed to complement the basic training students receive from one of the eight Ph.D. programs with special courses dedicated to computational and theoretical aspects of biomedical science. Co-mentor relationships between faculty in the biological disciplines and in relevant computational disciplines are encouraged. Students wishing to include a Computational and Systems Biology Emphasis should contact the director, Nick Grishin.

Director: Nick V. Grishin (214) 645-5952; ND10.124A

Administrator: Dorothee Staber (214) 645-5946; ND10.124

Research and Faculty

Graduate research training is reflective of the interests of the program faculty.

The research of the faculty encompasses a wide range of interests and can be categorized into three general methodological areas:  bioinformatics, theoretical biology, and biostatistics.  Applications of these computational concepts, methods and algorithms to different questions results in a diverse set of subjects and biological problems, including:

• Chemical biology:  computer programs to analyze small organic molecules, design of materials and drugs, chemical dynamics
• Biophysics and structural biology:  protein structure and function prediction, analysis of biological sequences and 3-D structures, macromolecular interactions and biological networks, molecular evolution
•  Genetics and genomics:  DNA polymorphism analysis, microRNA target prediction and validation, statistical genetics
• Systems biology:  computational reconstruction and analysis of biological networks; modeling of complex, nonlinear systems; principles underlying spatial-temporal organization of molecular networks; DNA and protein microarray data analysis
  
  

Activities

To complement the coursework and facilitate discussions and collaborations among CSB members at all levels, we have a weekly journal club and a monthly discussion group featuring invited speakers from leading institutions across the country.

Resources

CSB students have access to our internal high-performance computing facilities, housed by the Biochemistry Department and the McDermott Center for Human Genetics, and to supercomputers from Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin (TACC). TACC resources are among the largest in the country and its most powerful supercomputer, Ranger, peaks in performance at around 500 trillion floating point operations per second (Teraflops). In addition to computation and data storage, TACC provides courses in advanced computing, such as parallel and grid computing.