MBI Institute Partner: Virginia Tech
Contact: Kathy O'Hara
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI; http://www.vbi.vt.edu) at Virginia Tech has an active mathematical biology research program, which encompasses research and education initiatives. This program involves scientists who model living organisms at the cellular, tissue, organism, and population levels. Collaborations between VBI and several medical institutes support mathematical modeling projects in biomedicine. Projects typically involve a collaborative effort of researchers specializing in diverse disciplines including mathematics, computer science, biology, plant pathology, biochemistry, systems biology, statistics, and synthetic biology.
Students and researchers located at VBI have the unique experience of actively participating in "team science" and transdisciplinary research. VBI has postdoctoral research opportunities in mathematical biology available in a variety of areas. Graduate students may earn a master's or doctorate degree in a specific discipline such as mathematics, statistics, computer science, biological sciences or a doctorate degree from the GBCB (Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology; http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/gbcb/) program. Graduate students enrolled in the Virginia Tech Mathematics graduate program may engage in mathematical biology research with VBI researchers Dr. Abdul Jarrah, Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher and Dr. Henning Mortveit, all of whom have joint Mathematics Department and VBI appointments. Competitive GBCB fellowships for graduate training in "Transdisciplinary Team Science in the Life Sciences" are available (https://www.vbi.vt.edu/tts) to students interested in mathematical biology. The "VT-Initiative to Maximize Student Diversity."
(VT-IMSD; http://www.imsd.apsc.vt.edu/) program offers fellowships to doctorate students whose research is centered around biomedical and behavioral sciences.
VBI is engaged in the education of undergraduate students. VBI has partnered with the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics (http://www.icam.vt.edu/) to create the National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in Modeling and Simulation in Systems Biology (http://biomath.vbi.vt.edu/). Undergraduate students participate in summer research projects and produce a publishable peer-reviewed scientific paper. Another research experience available for undergraduate students interested in mathematical biology is the Bioengineering/Bioinformatics Summer Institute (BBSI; http://www.bbsi.sbes.vt.edu/) program.
