New research group ties key strategic thrusts together

New
research group ties key strategic thrusts together

…………………………………………………………………

The Computing
and Information Technology Institute (CITI) and the Institute
of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) have formed a new
research effort, the Rice Bioinformatics Group.

Bioinformatics
is an integration of mathematical, statistical and computer
methods to analyze biological, biochemical and biophysical
data. Bioinformatics ties together two of Rice’s key
strategic thrusts: biological science and engineering and
information technology.

The purpose of
the Rice Bioinformatics Group is to act as a nexus for various
activities at Rice in the field of bioinformatics, explained
Larry McIntire, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering
and chair of IBB, and Moshe Vardi, the Karen Ostrum George
Professor in Computational Engineering and chair of computer
science and director of CITI. As is the case with any newly
emerging cross-disciplinary research area, most researchers
who are doing related work come from the forefront of different
fields, with different backgrounds and strengths.

“We are
fortunate at Rice to have researchers in many departments
doing work in this area,” Vardi said. “The new
group will serve both as a means of coordinating existing
activities, such as the various seminar series on campus
that are pertinent to this area, and providing access to
new opportunities: research collaborations, curricular development
and funding proposals.”

Said McIntire:
“This coordination serves both an internal and an external
purpose: We strengthen existing programs by relating them
to each other, and we expose this strength to those looking
to Rice from the outside for leadership in this area.”

The Rice Bioinformatics
Group will operate under the umbrella of both CITI and IBB,
and its educational activities will be integrated with the
training activities of the W.M. Keck Center for Computational
Biology.

The Rice Bioinformatics
Group will be led by Marek Kimmel, professor of statistics,
with Ross Reedstrom as executive director.

The team now
is forming work groups to explore future research options
and opportunities as well as a bioinformatics information
and an e-mail list. Faculty members who would like to be
involved should contact Reedstrom at <reedstrm@rice.edu>
immediately and include a paragraph describing their research
interests.