Aug. 27, 2002

$1.7 Million Grant Fuses Together Biology and Computer Science

Money Helps Stimulate Interdisciplinary Collaboration

By Bob Ludwig

New interdisciplinary bridges will be built across three academic units as GW was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to support biological sciences programs in innovative areas such as bioinformatics and computational molecular biology, as well as a new partnership with The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). GW is one of only 44 research universities to be awarded the grant.

“One of the key focal points of our recent University-wide strategic planning effort has been to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration in education and research with undergraduate education as the centerpiece,” says Donald R. Lehman, vice president for academic affairs. “The Howard Hughes Medical Institute support of our effort to meld together education in undergraduate biology courses and training in the use of increasingly complex computational methods is a major step towards realizing one, powerful example of interdisciplinary collaboration.”

The grant will help shape GW’s undergraduate program by bringing together the strengths of three separate academic units: the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The goal of the program is to prepare biology and computer science students to work together as leaders in post-genomic science. Students from both disciplines will share classes and research projects.

Additionally, the grant will allow GW to create a new computational molecular biology concentration in the Department of Biological Sciences that includes specific training in computer science, and will strengthen the new engineering concentration in bioinformatics. It also will establish a permanent channel for interaction with medical research faculty for undergraduates in both the life sciences and computer science. Faculty from all three areas will participate in a continuing seminar focused on computational techniques.

Specifically, GW will expand student research opportunities and broaden access to science. A new interdisciplinary undergraduate research course will be created for biology, biochemistry, and computer science students. Student teams will work together with researchers to solve analytic questions from TIGR’s lab and from research facilities at Children’s National Medical Center and Holland Laboratories.

“We believe that one of the most important goals of this project is to change the culture of learning at GW by building bridges between the Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Computer Science as we educate the next generation of scientists,” says Robert Donaldson, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. Donaldson will serve with Randall Packer, professor of biology, and Rahul Simha, associate professor of engineering and applied science, as co-directors of the grant.

 

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