The University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine is developing a
new Center in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics that will
both integrate the diverse activities in these areas that are
ongoing across the University and build additional expertise and
capacity in computational solutions to key biological questions.
This Center will build on major new investments in genome sciences
and structural biology across the six schools of the Health
Sciences and take advantage of strong collaborations between the
School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is a key resource, in terms of
both faculty and support services, for the Center. It is
anticipated that the Center will be a combination of a physical
reality and a virtual center, with faculty and staff whose primary
responsibilities reside within the Center and with faculty and
staff whose primary responsibilities are elsewhere but who have
strong affiliation with the Center.
In the context of the new Center,
computational biology is the application of computational
methodologies in support of understanding complex biological
systems; computational biology includes, but is not restricted to,
aspects of genomics and proteomics; of combinatorial chemistry and
biology; of functional imaging; of structural biology; of
neurobiology. Bioinformatics is focused on both methodological
development and methodological application for extraction and
analysis of data from very large and complex data sets. Research
programs within the Center are expected to establish nucleation
points for research activities across the Schools of the Health
Sciences in computational biology, and they are expected to
capitalize on the extensive basic and clinical research programs
at the University. The Center will also establish a reliable,
state-of-the-art set of computational biology and bioinformatics
"core services" in support of biomedical research,
including but not restricted to molecular, genome, and protein
database services; in general, these services will be provided
through collaborative research activities with Center personnel.
Establishment of graduate and postgraduate training programs in
computational biology and bioinformatics will be key activities.
After an international search, Dr.
Ivet Bahar has been selected as the director of the Center. Dr.
Bahar brings a wealth of research experience to us, with her
interests spanning protein structure and dynamics; computer
modeling and design of macromolecules; biomolecular
sequence-structure-function relationships; statistical mechanics
of polymers; vibrational dynamics of proteins; coarse-grained
simulations; binding of biomolecules, receptor-ligand complexes,
molecular aspects of biochemical and biophysical processes; and
statistical analyses based on database searches. Dr. Bahar's
resumé can be found at http://klee.bme.boun.edu.tr/bahar.html#2000.
Although she will not be physically on site until March, 2001, Dr.
Bahar is eager to begin discussions with colleagues at the
University. She can be reached by e-mail via bahar@prc.bme.boun.edu.tr.
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