Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics combines biological and computational research to enhance the scientific understanding of life, including how and why diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes appear and progress. By processing genetic and biological data and comparing against health outcomes for specific groups of people, our bioinformatics researchers offer a more complete understanding of diseases and health, and hope to offer keys to better diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Our bioinformatics research projects have produced new software tools to analyze genomic data, creating a downstream effect on numerous areas of science and medicine. These tools offer researchers new ways to investigate the role genes and biology play in cancer, diabetes, disease biomarker discovery, biofuel, agriculture, military working dogs, the genetic basis of intelligence, identification of functional genomic elements, reverse engineering of genomic networks, metagenomics, and transcriptomics.

As a multidisciplinary research topic, bioinformatics benefits from professional collaborations with researchers across the engineering, science, medical, and technology spectrum. Some of our collaborators include:

• NIH’s Human Genome Research Institute
• Air Force Research Laboratory
• Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
• Ohio Supercomputer Center
• Ohio University
  • Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Biomedical Sciences
  • Department of Environmental and Plant Biology
  • Molecular and Cellular Biology Program
  • Edison Biotechnology Institute