Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
TIMOTHY ELSTON, Director
Professors
Max Berkowitz, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
Charles Carter, Protein Crystallography, Structural Polymorphism and Function
Jeff Dangl, Plant Genetics and Cellular Biology; Plant Disease Resistance and Cell Death Control
Henrik Dohlman, Regulators of G Protein Signaling
Gregory Forest, Mathematical Modeling of Mucociliary Transport Processes
Jeff Frelinger, Understanding and Manipulating the Genes of the Mouse and Human Major Histocompatibility Complexes
Joel Kingsolver, Evolutionary Biology, Population Ecology and Functional Biology of Insects
Terry Magnuson, Mammalian Genetics/Genomics/Development/Mouse Models of Human Disease
William Marzluff, Regulation of RNA Metabolism in Animal Cells
Jan Prins, High-Performance Computing, Algorithms, Programming Languages, Scientific Computing
Matthew Redinbo, Structural Studies of Dynamic Cellular Processes
Jack Snoeyink, Discrete and Computational Geometry Applications to Molecular Biology
John Sondek, Structural Biology of Signal Transduction
Alex Tropsha, Computational Analysis of Protein Structure and Drug Design
Associate Professors
Timothy Elston, Mathematical Modeling of Biological Networks
Bradley Hemminger, Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics, User Interface Design
Charles Perou, Genomic and Molecular Classification of Human Tumors to Guide Therapy.
Ivan Rusyn, Molecular, Biochemical and Genomics Approaches toward Understanding the Mechanisms of Chemical-Induced Carcinogenesis
David Threadgill, Disease Susceptibility, Mutagenesis, Colon Cancer, Genetic Engineering, Microarrays, Gut Flora
Todd Vision, Evolution of Genome Organization, Architecture of Complex Traits.
Wei Wang, Data Mining, Classification and Clustering Analysis of Gene-Expression Data and Protein Structures
Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque, Dental Ecology
Fred Wright, Statistical Genetics, Computational Genome Analysis
Fei Zou, Statistical Genetics of Complex Traits, Empirical Likelihood
Assistant Professors
Nikolay Dokholyan, Protein Folding, Design, and Evolution
Morgan Giddings, Systems Biology, Computational and Experimental Proteomics, Software Engineering, and Database Integration
Shawn Gomez, Systems Biology, Mathematical Modeling of Protein Interaction Networks
Mayetri Gupta, Statistical Analysis of Genomic Pattern Recognition
Ethan Lange, Statistical Genetics of Human Disease
Jason Lieb, Regulation Chromosomal Functions Such As Transcription, DNA Replication and Repair, Recombination and Chromosome Segregation
Yufeng Liu, Statistical Learning and Genomic Analysis
Garegin Papoian, Multi-Scale Computational Modeling, Protein Dynamics, Biophysical Chemistry
Maria Servedio, Mathematical Models Integrating Evolutionary Theories With Behavioral and Ecological Phenomena
Zefeng Wang, Splicing Regulation and Modulation
Modern biology, in this post-genome age, is being greatly enriched by an infusion of ideas from a variety of computational fields, including computer science, information science, mathematics, operations research and statistics. In turn, biological problems are motivating innovations in these computational sciences. There is a high demand for scientists who can bridge these disciplines. The goal of the Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) is to train such scientists through a rigorous and balanced curriculum that transcends traditional departmental boundaries.
Incoming students are expected to matriculate from a broad range of disciplines; thus, it is important to ensure that all students have a common foundation on which to build their BCB training. The first year is dedicated to establishing this foundation and training all students with a common set of core BCB courses. BCB students will also participate in three laboratory research rotations their first year and ultimately join a lab at the end of those rotations. Research work is done in the laboratory facilities of the individual faculty member and is supported primarily by faculty research grants.
Curriculum faculty have appointments in 18 departments in the School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, School of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, School of Information and Library Science and the College of Arts and Sciences. This level of diversity allows students a broad range of research opportunities.
Requirements for Admission for Graduate Work
Ideal BCB candidates should have an undergraduate degree in a biological, physical, mathematical or computational science. They must apply to the program through a new unified application program known as the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP). Students apply for graduate study in the biological or biomedical sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill. Students interested in any of the BBSP research areas apply to BBSP and those whose application portfolio places them highest on the admission list are asked to visit Chapel Hill for interviews. Students who are ultimately admitted to UNC make no formal commitment to a Ph.D. program. After completing their first year of study students leave BBSP and join a thesis lab and matriculate into one of 12 participating Ph.D. programs. During their first year BBSP students are part of small, interest-based groups led by several faculty members. These groups meet frequently and provide a research community for students until they join a degree granting program. Students are encouraged to apply as early as possible, preferably before January 1. (Applicants seeking a master's degree are not considered for admission.)
Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
In addition to the dissertation requirements of The Graduate School (four full semesters of credit including at least six hours of doctoral dissertation, a written preliminary examination, an oral examination and a dissertation), students in the Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology must meet the following requirements: complete one or two foundational courses (as needed), complete six of the seven BCB core courses, complete two elective courses (as determined by thesis advisor); participate in the BCB Colloquium as attendees the first and second years and as presenters in later years, act as teaching assistants for one of the BCB modules, attend the monthly seminar series sponsored by the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences and participate in the yearly BCB mini-symposium in the fall. Students are required to rotate through at least three laboratories before choosing a thesis advisor. It is strongly recommended that students attend national meetings in order to better understand how their research fits with progress in their field.
Financial Aid
Stipends for predoctoral students are available from an NIH predoctoral training grant and from the University. Tuition, student fees and graduate student health insurance are also covered by the training grant and the University.