Computer biology program gets $3M
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| Genetics, development and cell biology professor Dan Voytas joins with IGERT fellowship recipients (front left) Mgavi Brathwaite and Julie Hoy, (back left) Voytas, Scott Emrich and Joset Etzel |
A $3 million, five-year grant for Iowa State's graduate program in computational molecular biology shows that nothing succeeds like success.
The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant continues a $2.6 million National Science Foundation grant awarded in 1999. With that grant, Iowa State built a graduate program in bioinformatics and computational biology, with more than a dozen departments participating, said genetics, development and cell biology professor Daniel Voytas, the project's leader. Computational biology uses computer science, mathematics and statistics to decipher biological problems.
"In addition to the life sciences, there's mathematics, statistics, engineering, physics and other departments involved," said Voytas, an affiliate of the Center for Plant Transformation and the Laurence H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics. "The program is really about bringing together these disparate disciplines."
More than 80 faculty conduct bioinformatics, computational biology and biological statistics research at Iowa State, working with 30 graduate students supported by fellowships provided through the earlier grant. "We're one of the biggest graduate programs in the country in computational biology," Voytas added.
"Research fostered by the program has contributed to Iowa State's preeminence in organizing and interpreting corn and swine genetic data," Voytas said. Iowa State researchers also have developed computational tools that have spread to other institutions, including programs to assemble DNA sequence data into whole genomes.
Voytas said project leaders would use the new grant to extend the program beyond Iowa State. To enhance minority education in the program, Iowa State will team with New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.
The grant will help Iowa State "develop a network of institutions that are either currently training graduate students or developing training programs in computational biology," Voytas said. "This will give our students exposure to other perspectives and other types of research."
