LSC Research Groups

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MU Office of Research

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Last update: 1/8/07	Text size: A A A

Bioinformatics

Mission: The field of bioinformatics is one of the hottest scientific areas nationally and internationally. It is an interdisciplinary research field, which has strong ties to computer science, molecular biology and statistics. Bioinformatics plays an essential role in today’s biological research. As the amount of biological data grows exponentially, bioinformatics addresses the parallel demand for tools and methods in data management, visualization, integration, analysis, modeling, and prediction. Current research funding initiatives from all of the federal agencies have a significant and specific focus on bioinformatics. The confluence of these dramatic initiatives illustrates today’s enormous research opportunities in life sciences. Despite its acknowledged strengths, MU will not be able to fully exploit these opportunities or participate in the state-wide I-70 Biotechnology Corridor unless it aggressively builds a competitive bioinformatics program. As part of the MU Life Sciences Initiative, the bioinformatics group will become recognized as the center of interdisciplinary bioinformatics research and service on campus.

Contact: Dong Xu, Dowell Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Chair, Department of Computer Science: xudong@missouri.edu

	Xu, Dong	Computational biology; bioinformatics algorithm/tool development; high-throughput biological data analysis; protein structure prediction and modeling; function prediction for hypothetical proteins; biological pathway prediction.
	Springer, Gordon	Distributed computing/biomedical research project; computer networks and distributed computing; WWW and distributed computing/an experimental server; operating systems; supercomputer computation.