This proposal builds upon a growing interdisciplinary focus on Mathematical Biology at Trinity University previously supported by two consecutive HHMI grants. Here, we seek to increase the number of faculty conducting interdisciplinary research programs to catalyze more sustainable, widespread interdisciplinary learning among Mathematics and Biology majors. Participating mathematics and biology faculty will work in teams with students from both disciplines on projects including (1) Modeling the heat shock response of barely aleurone layers; (2) Homology detection in large DNA sequence datasets; (3) Quantitative description of protein localization; (4) Modeling competition as a determinant of invasion success; (5) Modeling spatial distributions of mammals; (6) Mathematical modeling of mitochondrial function and death of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons; and (7) Chemostat propagation of mixed bacteriophage Lambda-Escherichia coli K12 populations as a model system of predator-prey co-evolution. These projects represent expertise from a number of biological and mathematical subdisciplines, including genetics, ecology, cell biology, neuroscience, statistics, probability, dynamical systems, difference equations, mathematical biology, algebraic geometry and systems and data modeling.
Success in most future scientific endeavors will require interdisciplinary thinking. A truly interdisciplinary research environment is difficult to achieve, however, even among current PhD programs. At the undergraduate level, interdisciplinary collaborations have traditionally been even more limited due to the perception of incomplete disciplinary backgrounds and ongoing cognitive development of young researchers. To meet this challenge at the intersection between mathematics and biology, the Integrated Research in Biomathematics (IRBM) at Trinity University initiative will build on the relationship between our departments by forming research partnerships involving faculty and students, as well as deepening our curricular collaboration. Specifically, we propose to establish research groups consisting of undergraduate and faculty researchers from both of these disciplines that will apply biological and mathematics approaches to a wide spectrum of biological questions. To support these and other students, the departments will offer new interdisciplinary courses, as well as increase the collaboration in existing courses, culminating in the creation of a new minor in biomathematics. Through these changes we will engage undergraduates with a wide range of interests and preparation, while developing a larger community of like-minded researchers, all in an effort to prepare these students for the future of interdisciplinary research.
