Computational Biology

Research in Computational Biology at UVA uses mathematical and computational techniques to analyze, explain, and predict biological systems.The past years have brought a dramatic increase in the amount of experimental data generated by high-throughput sequencing, proteomics, metabolic and gene expression profiling, and structural techniques. Simultaneously, the computational power we have available has continued to increase exponentially.  We thus have huge data sets at our disposal coupled with the ability to make increasingly sophisticated analyses.

Computational biology at UVA includes cutting-edge research in computational biophysics, genomics, computational structural biology, and computational systems biology.  Our work is focused on addressing fundamental biological questions and understanding diseases of medical relevance, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, lung infections in cystic fibrosis, drug-resistant bacterial infections, and influenza.

In addition to analyzing biological systems, many laboratories at UVA combine computational and experimental work, using sophisticated tools to analyze biomolecular behavior and then verifying predictions in the lab.