Bioinformatics and Computational Biomedicine Research

BCB icon for research

Bioinformatics is the application of informatics in cellular and molecular biology, often with a focus on genomics. The sub-term translational bioinformatics is used to describe bioinformatics applied to human health. Computational biomedicine applies data science and analytics to problems and challenges in biomedicine.

Among the areas of research expertise include:

  • Precision medicine
  • Systems biology and systems genetics
  • Network inference and pathway methods
  • Complex traits and statistical genetics
  • Chromosome evolution and epigenetics
  • Drug repurposing methods
  • Ontologies and data standards
  • Reproducible research
  • Image analysis

Some grant-funded projects include:

Functional Considerations of the Urinary Microbiome in Overactive Bladder
Lisa Karstens
Overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) is highly prevalent, affecting over 40% of women over 40, poses significant economic costs, and negatively impacts quality of life. Bacteria in the bladder, known as the urinary microbiome, may play a role in urinary tract disorders and the proposed studies will identify the functional contribution of the urinary microbiome to OAB symptoms.
Funder: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH 

REACTOME: An Open Knowledgebase of Human Pathways
Guanaming Wu
REACTOME is an open-source, open access, manually curated and peer-reviewed pathway database. The goal of the project is to provide intuitive bioinformatics tools for the visualization, interpretation and analysis of pathway knowledge to support basic and clinical research, genome analysis, modeling, systems biology and education.
Funder: National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH