The biological sciences have become more quantitative and information-driven science since emerging computational and mathematical tools facilitate collection and analysis of vast amounts of biological data. Complexity analysis of biological systems provides biological knowledge for the organization, management and mining of biological data by using advanced computational tools. The biological data are inherently complex and non-uniform and collected at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The investigations of complex biological systems and processes require an extensive collaboration between biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists and engineering to improve our understanding of complex biological process from gene to system.
The main objective of this summer school is to train undergraduate, graduate biological science students and post-doctoral fellows in Bionano Science, Engineering and Technology (BNSET). The system level understanding of biology will be derived using mathematical and engineering methods to understand complex biological processes. It will expose the attendees with biology background to the latest technological developments. It will also be helpful to students in computer science and mathematics who are interested in doing research in BNSET, since the summer school provides exceptional insights into the fundamental challenges in science, medicine and engineering.
The summer schools are excellent learning, teaching and brain storming opportunities for students, post-docs and young researchers as well as the summer school faculty. The summer school will stimulate further interdisciplinary research and collaborations among engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and medical researchers, and will help in identifying new, challenging directions in complex biological science and bioengineering research with focus on bionano science, engineering and technology. This project will support the travel of 10 people (7 graduate students and 3 post-doctoral fellows) the 10th International Summer School on Biocomplexity from System to Gene to be held in Istanbul, Turkey on July 1-7, 2011; these students and faculty will interact with the participants from Turkey and other countries.
Recent developments in mathematical and computational technologies have further stimulated biological and bioengineering research. However, these emerging technologies have not been adequately presented to biological and bioengineering researchers. For this reason, there is an increasing demand for interdisciplinary interactions among biologists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists and medical researchers in these emerging technologies to provide the impetus to understand and develop reliable quantitative answers to the major integrative biological and biomedical challenges. The main objective of this summer school was to train undergraduate, graduate biological science students, bioengineering students and post-doctoral fellows in mathematical and computational sciences, including the theory, implementations and applications of both emerging and current mathematical and computational tools and techniques in biology to understand complex biological processes. It exposed the attendees with biology backgrounds to the latest developments in these emerging computational technologies. It was also helpful to both students and post-doctoral fellows in computer science and mathematics who are interested in doing research in biology and bioengineering since the summer school provides exceptional insights into the fundamental challenges in biology and medicine. The summer school lectures focused on the recent developments Systems and Synthetic Biology and the new directions in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Molecular Engineering research and the rapid diffusion of advanced mathematical and computational tools in the biological sciences. These methods will be helpful for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and mathematics who are interested in pursuing research in biology, biomolecular engineering and bioengineering since the summer school provided exceptional insights into the fundamental challenges facing biological science. Seven distinguished faculty gave these lectures, including Profs. Shuming Nie, Thomas Sinkjaer, John McDevitt, May Wang, Atam Dhawan David Fenstermacher and Jill Steinbach.. Many career paths were also addressed, from the traditional academic path of Ph.D. to post doc through faculty appointments to industry positions at the summer school. The participants discussed the advantages of an academic career, which includes the freedom to pursue one's interests as well as the challenges of obtaining top appointments. This was countered by the advantages and disadvantages of industry positions including who determines research paths and the availability of resources.
