II - Department of Mathematics Biomathematics Study Group Vanderbilt has recognized the promise of biomathematics to our understanding of biological problems and formed the Biomathematics Study Group (BSG)in 1991. With intensive interaction with biologists over this period, it is becoming a focus of quantitative biology efforts at Vanderbilt with major components in theoretical and computational biomathematics. Vanderbilt has invested heavily in this activity, with recruitment plans for three new permanent faculty appointments in the Department of Mathematics as well postdoctoral fellows. This year, the Department of Mathematics hired its first tenure-track biomathematician and there are presently two postdoctoral faculty supported by the BSG. We expect to have an additional two or three postdoctoral faculty for the 2004-05 academic year. In addition to resident faculty, there is a steady flow of short- and long-term visitors. The education of students with a background in biology and/or mathematics is an important goal of the BSG. For its graduate students, the BSG has created a track within the Department of Mathematics in biomathematics. The required courses for a graduate student in the biomathernatics tracks includes a classical, solid mathematical background (differential equations, analysis, computing, topology, etc.) and courses in from biological sciences such as biochemistry and cell biology. Presently, there are four graduate students in this track. Our approach to graduate education in biomathematics is to interweave the theoretical and experimental experiences of the graduate students and thus, our students are rotating through experimental labOratories and co-advised by faculty members in both the Department of Mathematics and members of the BSG who have primary appointments in the biological sciences. The BSG encompasses over 40 members of which over half are full time Vanderbilt faculty members and the others are associate members with a broad spectrum of national and international representation including the US, Europe and India. Their research interests include population dynamics, modeling in the clinical sciences of medicine, modeling the growth of solid tumors, statistical methods in human genetics, modeling of eukaryotic gradient sensing, modeling of zebrafish gastrulation, medical imaging, modeling of the dynamics of signal transduction and second messengers in visual transduction, homogenization and concentrated capacity. The BSG makes every effort to include in its program neighboring institutions such as the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Chattanooga and Tullahoma, Belmont University in Nashville, as well as traditionally minority institutions in Nashville of Fisk University, Meharry Medical College and Tennessee State University. Researchers at these institutions interact actively with researcher. The BSG is also a participating institution with the newly-formed NSF supported Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University (http://mbi.osu.edu/). More information about the Biomathematics Study Group can be found at its website: http:flabcd.math.vanderbilt.edu/~biomath/ The BSG and the Department of Mathematics own and maintain their own group of servers. In the spring of 2004, the BSG purchased a Dell server (dual 3.4GHz Xeon processors) for use by its members. With VAMPIRE and ACCRE (see above), these facilities will be sufficient for the simulations envisioned by the modelers.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 88 publications
