The grant will provide ISU students with the equipment and training necessary to make biological discoveries with mathematics and computer science. Bioinformatics is the practice of solving scientific problems using computers and other computational tools in addition to traditional laboratory techniques. In the past few years, vast amounts of scientific data have been generated. A genome is an organism's entire collection of genes. At ISU, students will have an unprecedented opportunity to study all maize genes in a database researchers are creating.
Similar projects exist for swine and cotton.
Students with training in computational molecular biology are hot in today's job market. Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies and academic institutions will welcome highly-trained scientists who can decipher the vast amounts of data generated from genome projects. The faculty will mentor approximately forty Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers. Ph.D. fellows in bioinformatics will work with three faculty members during their first year of study to establish expertise in wet and dry lab techniques. Over the summer, they will have opportunities to intern in the biotechnology industry.