An initial working draft sequence of the human genome was published in 2001, but scientists have continued to investigate the seemingly boundless intricacies of the genome, and now the University has strengthened its commitment to such research.
The Corporation's approval of a $20 million donation to establish an endowment for the new Center for Computational and Molecular Biology will provide funding to further scientific research in this expanding field.
A $16 million donation from an anonymous Brown trustee will support a new professorship in each of the five departments involved with the center - computer science; molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology; ecology and evolutionary biology; molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry; and applied mathematics - and $4 million will support teaching programs and undergraduate and graduate research. The search for professors is currently underway, said Chip Lawrence, professor of applied mathematics, who came to Brown last fall as the first director of the CCMB.
"Brown made a commitment to computational and molecular biology over a year ago," Lawrence said. "Compu-tational and molecular biology is a very hot topic."
"The impact of the information sciences on biological sciences over the next few decades is going to be very large in a multitude of ways, and there's a great deal of interest at Brown in the way this is going to happen," said Provost Robert Zimmer. "We have been clear for two and a half years that CMB was a high priority, and it was gratifying to find a donor."
While the center will not be housed in its own building, the Corporation is currently discussing the possibility of providing space in the biomedical research laboratories located in the Jewelry District at 70 Ship St., or in on-campus alternatives.
Brown is not the first university to add CMB to its list of offerings, but it was the first institution in the country to offer a computational biology concentration, a program that began eight years ago. Since then, 30 undergraduate students have received degrees in the field.
Professor of Computer Science Franco Preparata has been involved with the computational biology program since its inception in 1997 and anticipates future involvement in the center's activities, he said. "There's a strong demand in the world for the interaction between biology and the interactive and computational sciences," Preparata said. "This is not something that the average computer scientist would like to do, but there are those who have interest in biology. We are trying to help those people build the right background to be able to tackle with the computer very complex problems in biology."
After the human genome was decoded and sequenced, scientists were left with three billion DNA bases, which is intimidating without the use of computers, Lawrence said. That gave impetus to establish programs in CMB. In addition to analyzing the genome, CCMB research could help discover cures for viruses. Currently, there are enormous databases containing variants of viruses such as HIV that are yet to be fully analyzed. The CCMB will provide students with the opportunity to take part in this groundbreaking research, Lawrence said.
"It's become a hot topic because the genome has been put in our face, then we're standing there looking at this mass of clearly relevant data and asking ourselves what are we going to do with it all," Lawrence said.
But Lawrence said he expects that substantial developments will not be immediate. "At this point, Brown has demonstrated the seriousness of its commitment to this field, but it is in a stage of growth," he said.
