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 expose undergraduate and graduate biological science and bioengineering students to the relatively new approaches of Engineering Better Medicines, Personalized Medicine, Systems and Synthetic Biology. This summer school will be helpful, also, to students in computer science and mathematics who are interested in pursuing research in biology, bio-molecular engineering and bioengineering, since the summer school provides exceptional insights into the fundamental challenges in biological sciences.
The summer school uses lectures, oriented toward biological science students, by expert faculty and will focus on the Engineering Better Medicines, Personalized Medicine, Systems and Synthetic Biology. In addition to these lectures, the summer school will employ 2 two-hour panel discussion, with active participation of undergraduate and graduate students, focused on Engineering Better Medicines and Advances in Biomedical Engineering Research and Education in the World.
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. This project will support the travel of 12 senior undergraduate students and graduate students s and five summer school faculty for the International Summer School on Biocomplexity from System to Gene to be held in Istanbul, Turkey on July 1-7, 2010.
NSF CBET# 1036001 The 9th International Biocomplexity Summer School sponsored by the NSF, the Bogazici University, the UH BME department and the IEEE EMB Society, was held on July 1-7, 2010, Istanbul, Turkey. This summer school was the continuation of the previous summer schools. A total of 25 students and 5 faculty attended and 18 participants were fully sponsored by the NSF (www.bioc2010.engineering.asu.edu). Increasing the participation of women and minorities in science and engineering is a goal of the NSF and also our commitment to promote the bioengineering and bioscience education among women and minorities. As a result, more than half of the students were female and minorities. The NSF and the IEEE EMBS co-sponsored 20 of the 25 students. Objective 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. NSF Fellowships NSF supported 18 students from the US institutions (especially, women and underrepresented groups). The fellowships were awarded by the summer school organizing committee and faculty to the prospective students based on the scientific credentials of the candidates including their academic standing, the relevance of their research (only from graduate students and post-doctoral fellows), their career goals, and the financial necessity. We highly encouraged the participation of underrepresented groups (minorities, females, persons with disabilities etc.) in the areas of biological sciences, bioengineering, computer science, mathematics etc. We sent the fellowship announcements to the women in engineering and science programs and the Deans of the historically minority colleges and universities in the US. These participants were selected from a large applicant pool and were all highly qualified. As a result, more than half of the students were women and minorities. Summer School Faculty and Lectures 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. Five distinguished faculty gave these lectures, including Profs. Utkan Demirci, David Fenstermacher, Simone Furini, Theresa Good and Elebeoba E May. Summer School Panel The final session of the 2010 Biocomplexity Summer School was a panel discussion that gave an opportunity for students to ask questions outside the realm of the subjects being presented in the formal sessions. Alina Starchenko of Cornell, Jaydeep Srimani of George Tech led the summer school panel to discuss the research concepts presented during the week, the educational and career concerns for students in these fields and provide suggestions for future summer schools. Julia O'Rourke of UT at Austin and Austin Hsiao of UIUC delivered the student banquet address.. Disseminations of the Summer School Activities The faculty lecture notes were published in the summer school proceedings and distributed to all the summer school participants, faculty and guests. The details of the summer school activities are posted at http://bioc2010.engineering.asu.edu As a summary, we strongly believe that this summer school further stimulated interdisciplinary research and collaborations among engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists, and medical researchers, and helped identify new, challenging directions for the use of mathematical and computational tools in the life sciences. We will continue having the summer school on Biocomplexity and encourage undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs to apply for the fellowships for the next summer school on Biocomplexity Metin Akay Organizer & Chair International Summer School on Biocomplexity from Gene to System
