Who are we?

The Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology serves physical and computer science students who are interested in applying their knowledge to biology, as well as students with a biological background interested in instrumentation, computation, and physical aspects of biology. The cooperation and cross-training of scientists with engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences backgrounds has infused biology with powerful technologies and exciting new paradigms. Close interactions between theory and experiment have led to fundamental advances in our understanding of the physical basis of life. In the past, the extraordinary complexity of life has limited both the application of theoretical models and the generalization of experimental findings. Now biology is undergoing a fundamental change with the application of modern computational methods that can manage huge amounts of information and can simulate highly complex processes. Experiment, theory, and computational modeling are working hand-in-hand to solve problems of unprecedented complexity.

The mission of the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology is to train students who can work creatively at the interface between theory and experiment, and who will provide the dynamic leadership necessary for the next generation of biological research. The Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology is interdisciplinary, consisting of over 40 faculty members who have their home departments in Biochemistry, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Computer Engineering, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Cell and Structural Biology, and Microbiology, and in the Medical School. The Center serves as the interface between faculty research programs in experimental biophysics and computational biology, with common interests in elucidating the physical basis of biological phenomena. The graduate degree program of the Center offers training in all aspects of this rapidly growing area of biology.

In experimental biophysics, faculty research includes single molecule spectroscopy, structural biology, fluorescence microscopy, neurophysiology, enzyme mechanisms, electron and proton transfer, magnetic resonance, protein and RNA folding, molecular dynamics, systems biology, and more. In computational and theoretical biology, current research by Center faculty utilizes a wide range of computer platforms to simulate diverse biological phenomena at many levels - from individual macromolecules and systems of interacting molecules, to membranes and single cells, to networks of neurons and higher order structures, and even populations of organisms. Center faculty members are also developing bioinformatics tools to create and search biological databases, to provide input for functional analysis and simulations.